MARRIAGE THANKSGIVING

I’m not the greatest guy in the world. In fact, I’m not easy to live with. I’m highly irritable, impatient, anxious, and critical. In short, I am a “handful.” This is why I have always found teaching the course on Marriage to be most intimidating for me.

On top of this, I haven’t been very successful in changing these traits, even though I pray regularly for the Lord to do something with me. Of course, all of this is very humbling. Nevertheless, I have grown in my confidence in the Lord and His love for me. Consequently, I no longer regard my failures as an indication that the Lord is getting sick of me. Instead, I have become convinced that the Lord is working His perfect plan out in my life.

You might ask, “How can this be, since you are still struggling against these same character traits?” Well, the Lord has assured me that:

·       “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

That is why I am now boasting of my weaknesses in confidence. I know that He has accomplished much through my weaknesses and I know that He will continue to, as Paul had written:

·       …we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. (2 Corinthians 1:8-10)

One reason that I face failure over and over again is because I need it. It humbles me and causes me to despair of self-trust and to flee to God alone. Consequently, I’ve come to adore my Savior even more.

This humbling process has produced many benefits. Along with trusting in God, it has made me more grateful for prayer, the blessed opportunity to offer up my many personal misgivings and fears to our Lord.

It has also caused me to adore my wife more than I had. Before, my irritability and negativity was in charge of our relationship. Besides, my self-esteem had been jacked-up to compensate for my bad feelings about myself. I had convinced myself that I was a king. As long as I regarded my wife as a queen, there was no problem. However, by the end of our honeymoon, I realized that she wasn’t a queen, and I began to feel cheated.

Mercifully, the Lord has shown me what I really am, and it’s not pretty. As a result, I am now grateful for my wife – a woman who is always there to help and to forgive me. Instead of thinking, “How could I ever have ended up with such an irritating woman,” I now think, “What would I ever do without her?”

As I came to accept myself, through the love of God, as I really am, He has enabled me to accept the failings of others. Consequently, I can no longer look down on anyone. Instead, He has been opening my eyes to the beauty of my brethren and His Church.

I don’t enjoy my weaknesses and infirmities, but I have begun to see them as King David had:

·       It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. (Psalm 119:71-72)

To Christ be the glory!