Minding Your Menu:
Real Love – Part 2
Scripture Reading: Ephesians 5:22-31
Key Verse: Ephesians 5:32-33
This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Continuing from yesterday’s devotional, I want to remind us that our soft addictions tend to keep us from going deep with our relationships–starting with our marriage partners! Soft addictions take time that should be used to grow deeper relationships. Soft addictions drain our energy for life while healthy relationships energize us for life. Soft addictions “zone us out” as we follow that mind numbing path. Men can only love their wives as Christ loved the church by first dealing with these soft addictions!
Ladies, respect your husbands! Some of you are having thoughts like: “I’d love to, but he doesn’t earn it!” But, let me remind you, you want (and need) your husband to love you even when you don’t deserve it, right? Respect, like love, is an action more than a feeling. Our feelings ebb and flow because of our own health, moods and the behavior of those around us. But our actions can be consistent with our values no matter how we are feeling on any given day or moment!
Wives, act out your respect and you will be amazed at the long term benefits it plays in your relationships. Just like the husbands acting out love, the results work even when feelings are not the motivator of those actions. When we obey the Bible’s instructions, we live the abundant life promised.
Father, help me to ignore my selfish feelings when they allure me to be un-Christ like in my relationships. I ask this in Jesus’ Name, Amen.