Marriage from A to Z

“Are You Enjoying or Enduring?”

     Each day that God allows you to see, breathe, and move, you have a choice.  You can just endure life or you can enjoy life!  The difference is just a matter of how each person deals with what they have been given.  You must decide what your attitude will be each day. For the singles, I want to encourage you to be intentional about enjoying your life!  My focus for this week is on enjoying marriage.  So, let’s take the same statement about life, and apply it to marriage.  Marriage should be enjoyed, and not just endured.

       To endure is to bear without resistance or with patience and tolerance.  If you are going through, be encouraged and know that with God’s help you can endure.  I Corinthians 13:7 says, Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.  However,  there are so many people who are enduring and not enough people enjoying this wonderful institution called married.  We don’t have to look very far to find or hear about a marriage in trouble.  So let’s focus on the opposite.

     God meant for marriage to be enjoyed!  To enjoy is to experience with joy, to take pleasure in and to have satisfaction.   I can honestly say that after almost 17 years, I am still enjoying my marriage.  Marriage should be a vibrant relationship between two people who love each other.  When God is in the marriage, we should never run out of love or whatever we need to keep the marriage going.  God is love, and He has an abundant supply.  If we keep going to Love (God), we can consistently get everything that we need.  There should never be a shortage.  A marriage relationship should be filled with passion, commitment, understanding and grace. Marriage was meant to illustrate the love that Christ has for the church.

     Do you have that kind of love in your marriage?  If so, keep enjoying your marriage! If not, it can be cultivated.   No matter how long you have been married, there is hope!  When a marriage is nourished, cherished and given the attention that it needs, it can be enjoyed!    Wake up each day and thank God for the spouse that God has given to you.  Remember to treasure each day with each other.  Find something good to focus on. Do something fun, send a sweet text, cook a nice meal and ENJOY!

Until next week  . .  .

Carolyn