Theme:   Love Sex and Marriage - Q & A

This eDevotional was written by a volunteer from Timberlake Church.

READ: Colossians 3:14; John 13:34; 1 Peter 2:2

THINK: I’m still thinking about what Pastor Ben taught us this last weekend about How to Keep Your Marriage Growing. I enjoy growing things; vegetables, fruit trees, flowers… and I have observed that if plants are not growing, they are dying. I think the critical word in last week’s message title is ‘Keep’. We hear terms like keeping a garden and keeping animals that imply constant attention, maintenance and care. Plants and trees need good earth for healthy roots, water, food and sunshine to grow. When they lack any of those things, they fade, wilt and ultimately die. In much the same way, marriage is a long-term commitment that deserves our constant attention and care.

When we want to learn about growing our lives, whom but the creator of all growing things would we listen to? God tells us through the Bible: “put on love”,  “wash with water through the word”, to be “always thirsty for the pure spiritual milk, so that by drinking it you may grow up…” As Pastor Ben told us, all this care and feeding starts in our hearts and minds. It’s so easy for me to get bored or careless or too busy with other parts of life and neglect my garden but the feedback is immediate and dramatic, the impatiens droop, the broccoli leaves turn brown. But unfortunately, we don’t typically get such immediate or dramatic feedback from our marriages. Most relationship problems are the result of long-term neglect. If we realize how easy it is to miss the signs of problems in our marriages it makes it even more imperative for us to be diligent and careful so that the little things don’t pile up.

DO:  Think of your marriage like your garden. Make a plan and a schedule for watering your spouse with the encouragements of God’s word. Note what works in your “garden” and what doesn’t; plan to replace the things that don’t work with better things. Expect a harvest from your time and care well spent so that like the video last weekend of couples who have been married for decades, you can record one yourself after your 40th or 50th anniversary.

PRAY:  Father, You are the great gardener. You watch over me and keep me everyday. Teach me this wisdom. Keep me aware that everyday of neglect has its consequence in wilting affections, lost passions and ultimately our covenants. Help me to love as you have loved me. Amen.