Living Out Scripture in Your MarriageExemplo

What About You?

Do you remember the bliss of being engaged? The excitement you felt over marrying the perfect person and all the fulfillment you'd receive by being married to them. You were excited that you had found your soul mate. But then you walk down that aisle, join your lives, share a home, and suddenly realize that your soul mate has some flaws. They leave their socks on the floor, clutter the bathroom counter, sleep too much, get frustrated when everything isn't perfect, and stop communicating with you the way they once did when you were dating and engaged.

When your spouse's imperfections appear, marriage can feel challenging, right? It's not marriage that has become the challenge but the change it requires of you that's hard. It becomes easy to focus on your spouse's flaws and all they're doing wrong. Meanwhile, it doesn't even cross your mind to think about what you might bring to the table.

Marriage requires grace, acceptance, unconditional love, and constant self-examination. Those things can make marriage feel challenging, but applying them in your marriage also makes it great. The next time you grumble over your spouse, it might be time to shift your focus to God and ask Him to search your heart instead. Psalm 139:23-24 graciously remind us that we must seek the Lord about the condition of our hearts and actions. In other words, we must get our eyes off our spouse's flaws and ask the Lord to reveal our own.

When we examine what we're doing and repent of what we need to get rid of, we open ourselves up to forgiveness and rid ourselves of all unrighteousness. Before you put all the pressure on your spouse to change, you pause and ask God, what about me? What is it in me that needs to change?

Take Action:

As you enter this day, ask the Lord to reveal anything you need to eliminate or change. And when He brings something to light, be willing to repent and turn away from it. You can just make searching yourself something you practice first instead of putting all the attention on your spouse.