Strengthen Your Marriage Paraugs

Give To Each Other

Former president, John F. Kennedy, is famously quoted for saying, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” We want to suggest, ask not what your spouse can do for you but what you can do for your spouse. Acts 20:35 emphasizes this truth: it is more blessed to give than to receive. We can be so quick to see the solution to a problem as something we need to get from someone else, but that’s not actually what we read is true. According to scripture, the best thing we can do is offer up what we have!

Giving is an active movement toward a solution while waiting to receive something from someone else keeps you stuck in the same spot, and it often adds pressure and frustration where there could be pleasure and enjoyment. Giving can look like anything from doing whatever it is you want your husband to be doing to simply choosing him over anyone else.

Many of these verses we read about kindness, joy, and generosity are easily seen as ways we can love our neighbor better, but they’re best when put into practice within our own marriages. Going the extra mile, turning the other cheek, and giving to the one who asks without turning away from someone who wants to borrow something doesn’t just apply to friends and strangers; they’re principles to apply in marriage as well.

When you give your best investment to your spouse, you get to reap the benefits and experience the joy that comes. In the same way you choose to put in the work, you should also put in the celebration! Marriage can sometimes be seen as where you put in the work, and going out with friends is seen as the relief from that work. But when you take the pressure off each other and recognize the purpose you have been put together for, you make room for the enjoyment of each other and the celebration of what you’ve been able to do together. That doesn’t mean you have to spend every waking moment with each other, but your spouse should be the person you love to be with the most, whether in heartache or celebration. May they receive the overflow of your joy before you share it with anyone else.

First, make a list of ways your spouse gives to you that you are grateful for. Next, make a list of different ways you can give to them, whether it’s giving time, joy, grace, an act of service, a compliment, etc. Consider how you can enjoy and celebrate with them today.