I, by my own admission, would normally not be caught dead reading for leisure. However, upon getting engaged, a friend who is recently married reccomended I pick up a copy of Gary Thomas's Scared Marriage. Since buying the book last weekend, you would think I was Belle, in her sleepy little village with her nose stuck in a book [minus the apron & middle parted hair, of course]. I simply cannot put it down! The book poses this main question: What if God designed marriage to make us holy, more than to make us happy?
I was going to wait until I finished reading the book to blog about it; but my own spiritual growth & my relationship with Walker & this book have all met at such an insightful intersection, that I can think of nothing else tonight!
Last night Walker & I got to talking about the things we have been spiritually struggling with lately. Humility. Topped both our lists. Our prideful spirits have manifested themselves differently in our separate lives, but there was still something so refreshing about our honesty with one another. To expose our sin to the other, and identify with that sin, was so unifying.
God has recently started to reveal to me that with humility, comes such sweet, unchaining liberty. Freedom. Release. When I live humbly, I am free to love people more. I am free to seek God further & with more energy. I am free to dismiss my shallow judgements of people. I am free to listen. I am free to learn & grow.
In Gary Thomas's book, he quotes Dr. John Barger about the similarities between a man's humble relationship with his wife, and a Christian's humble relationship with his God.
[We (men) cannot successfully demand the love of a woman, or the love of God. We have to wait. And just as a woman's heart is melted when she encounters in us weakness accompanied by our humble admission of it, so God's heart is melted and He is most tender and gracious to us when He encounters in us weakness accompanied by our humble admission of it.]
The way God has chosen to teach me this lesson in humility through my relationship with Walker, & my preparation for marriage, has truly been...well, humbling. I can think of no better time to be reminded of the importance of humility, and the liberty that comes with it, than right now. Now, during these months before my wedding when I am preparing to sacrifice my own needs for those of my husband. Now, when I desire the complete freedom to glorify God more, by loving & living humbly.
No comments:
Post a Comment