Keys to Building a Good Marriage

Photo by Charlotte Duren
 
We recently moved to a new community.  In all the preparation for holiday celebrations and then the move, getting settled in our home and community, my quiet time dwindled to a few prayers on the run and scattered thoughts on the word.  Add family to the mix and it occurred to me how easy it is to neglect those things which are most important.  If my relationship to God is hurting, how much more so the relationship to my husband and children must be suffering!  

The natural ebb and flow of life is never a steady stream, but sometimes a rushing torrent, sometimes a trickle in the desert.  If we women don't carve out time for our own daily study, the whole family suffers and our marriage is not the best it can be.

Each of us has the same amount of time.  We have today.  No one is promised more or less.  But we much make a conscious choice how we spend that time.  Now we don't all have the same responsibilities.  Some of you have babies in diapers, small children clambering for your attention.  Their needs are great.  Some of you have raised your children, and your job may be the most demanding of your time.  Or you may be retired, and the demands of job or family behind you.  Time weighs heavy.

But each of us chooses how we respond to those demands.  Choosing to spend time daily in God's word and prayer will better prepare us to be the wives, mothers, friends and sisters we should be.  We cannot be all we are created to be without including the One most important.  

Today I choose to make my life more like Jesus and less like me.  I can only do that if I get to know Him better by reading His word and praying for wisdom in making it mine.  I will choose to shed some of my 'self' that I will look more like my Master each day.