Day 13: One Plus One = One

We all walk around this world as separate people, doing many different tasks during the day, having different feelings and experience different situations.  During the day we wonder what our husbands are doing or how their days are going.  We think of ourselves and our husbands as two separate people.  How often do we think about our husbands as being part of us; and not only part of us, but do we ever think of the two as being one?

Husbands ought to love their own wives as they love their own bodies.  Ephesians 5:28

I wonder if my husband has ever given this scripture as much thought as I think it deserves.  Maybe I can remedy that.  If we are to be loved by our husbands as their own bodies, we have to consider how much they love their own bodies.  The scripture goes on to say...

He who loves his wive loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it.  Ephesians 5:29

 This scripture reminds me of something my husband said the other day.  I have no idea what it was in reference to.  He said, "If we all hated ourselves, we'd all be dead."  Pretty blunt right, but true and true to scripture. 

My husband worked for a car company and was a service adviser for major repairs.  He is the first one that will tell you that if the work is expensive enough, the owners will usually trade the car in for a newer model instead of sinking their savings into their old car.  This is also the same man that shattered his hand when he was 17 and had  a steel plate put in to make his hand usable again.  He would have rather spent the money, time and pain to save his hand instead of having it removed and replaced for a fake one.  We tend to look at our marriages in one of two ways; we will either want to invest our time, money, blood, sweat and tears into our marriage to save it or we see the investment as being too great and want a trade in, a do-over.

When it comes to our marriage, it is as simple as God wants us to treat our spouses, like we want to be treated.  We should love and be loved, share and share alike, we do share pain, joy, blessings and curses with each other.  Even if we think our spouse does not  feel the same about a situation as we do, they are still affected by the situation that affects us, whether it be good or bad.  

It is also true that if we aren't good to our spouse, we aren't being good to ourselves.  When we use ugly, hurtful words or blow up over little things, etc.  We may think we are trying to hurt our mates, but we are also hurting ourselves.  I am guilty of this very thing.  My husband is not one to show much emotion and sometimes a reaction from him, good or bad, is all I want.  I have been known try to get a negative reaction out of my husband by being hateful, using ugly language or throwing a down right tantrum...does it work.  NEVER!  It has never worked.  In the end, I'm the one that is hurt and he thinks I am being immature and selfish.  This is why the challenges in the beginning were such as they were.

Now, it's time to think of our marriage with much more love and tenderness than ever before.  If we are one, then we should treat each other as such.  We should cherish our spouses body, as we cherish our own.  We should take pleasure in our spouse, as we want our husbands to take pleasure in us.  

Today's Challenge:  What can you do to show your husband you love and cherish him?   You can do this challenge publicly or privately, which ever you choose.  I think I'll do both but the most fun one will probably be private.  Today should be a day that you pray over what you can do for your marriage to remove the bad and ugly and uplift the good because when you look at him, you are looking at you.