Enjoy

Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 9:9 Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. Obviously this goes for wives and their husbands as well, so the question is, are you? Are you enjoying life with your spouse. If not, why not? All of us can list reasons to not enjoy our lives, married or otherwise. There are countless things to worry about, from the mundane aspects of our everyday existence to sweeping issues that affect the whole world. We are over-scheduled and busy, the faucet is leaking, the car is sputtering, the stock market is down, there’s a global pandemic happening, climate change is slowly killing us all… This fallen world is rife with unrest and pain. We know this though! Nothing about the state of the world is new. Jesus told us that we’d face problems. But he also stresses that we should have hope. In John 16:33 he says I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. Think of your mental state when you are driving home from a long trip, and then compare that to your mental state when you are driving somewhere new and trying to find the address. Knowing where we are heading should ease our hearts and minds as we are heading there.So of course, pray for the world we live in, and do what you can to make it better. We are all responsible for doing work to usher in the kingdom. As you do so, though, make a choice to ENJOY life with your spouse. From making date nights happen regularly, to talking about hopes and dreams, to supporting each other’s interests and fulfilling each other’s desires, find joy in your shared life together. Even when things are hard, if you lean in to the fact that you are a team, and you don’t have to face trials alone but with a partner that has your back, joy can be found. Think of how bonds are strengthened by shared adversity, and know that on the other side of trouble you will be stronger as a couple. Author Alan Cohen wrote “Don’t postpone joy until you have learned all of your lessons. Joy is your lesson.” Make it one you keep learning - until you get it right!

Plans

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

God has a plan for each one of us. By extension, for those of us who are married he also has plans for our marriages, plans “to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future.” That said though, we cannot just sit around and wait for God’s plans to come to fruition. When God told Abraham to “go to a land I will show you” and made his promise that Abraham’s descendants would be innumerable, and the whole world would be blessed by them, Abraham packed up and went. Not knowing exactly where he was going, he simply had faith that God would show him where he was supposed to be when the time came. 

We too then, must take steps along our journey in order for God’s plans to come to fruition in our lives. Life is busy, and distracting. With our own schedules, kids’ schedules, work and all the other things going on around us, it is easy to become reactionary, bobbing and weaving with life’s punches to try our best to manage everything. When that happens our spouses, and our marriages, get given the remnants of our time, our effort and our attention.

God has plans for us - and thus so should we.

Young couples often make promises to never do “unromantic” things like schedule sex, or plan for date nights. After all, shouldn’t love be spontaneous? Sure, in Hollywood scripts, romance novels and love songs. (Incidentally, in all those things it is written out, scripted and planned) In real life though, anything worth doing or worth having is worth the time and effort spent to make happen. Time can be budgeted; maybe that’s the origin of the phrase “time is money!” At the beginning of each month, look at the calendar. Put down all the doctor appointments, soccer practices, dance recitals and scout meetings. Put down all the church committee meetings, business trips and other errands. Find time in amongst everything else and dedicate it to each other. Plan to have dinners, see movies, and allow for time to snuggle on the couch and yes, plan to make love to each other. Be intentional, make time for each other. Spontaneous love, sex and romance is great, until it doesn’t happen at all. You can always find ways to surprise each other within the framework of your schedule, so the planning doesn’t make it feel rote or dull.
Have God’s purposes for you and your marriage in your mind as you make your plans, and consider these two verses from Psalm 20:4

May he give you the desire of your heart, and make all your plans succeed.

and Proverbs 16:3

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.

God has a plan for you and your spouse. Actively work towards making those plans come to fruition, both for your own benefit and that of the kingdom to come!

Possibilities

The Sunday comics may seem an odd place to find salient marriage advice, but as the calendar turns I’m reminded of the last strip that my all-time favorite comic artist ever published. On December 31, 1995 a new Calvin and Hobbes strip appeared in newspapers for the last time. To the heartbreak of fans around the world, Watterson retired the beloved characters, stating he had “done all he could with them.”

The scene: The boy and his tiger stand knee deep in snow holding a sled, eyes wide. The text goes like this:

C: Wow! It really snowed last night! Isn't it wonderful?
H: Everything familiar has disappeared! The world looks brand new!
C: A new year... a fresh, clean start!
H: it's like having a big white sheet of paper to draw on!
C: A day full of possibilities!
C: It's a magical world, Hobbes ol' buddy... let's go exploring!

Despite being an end, it speaks wondrously to new adventures, fun to be had, and indeed, endless possibilities.

As Watterson named his characters with obvious religious symbolism, it doesn’t feel too wrong to find a godly message here. God says in Revelation 21:5 “I am making everything new!” Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” Even in the Old Testament, the author of Lamentations says “[The Lord's] compassions never fail. They are new every morning.”

Whether or not we begin the year with a blanket of unspoiled snow covering our landscape, be reminded of this. God’s mercies are new. There are endless possibilities, and plenty to explore - including your marriage, and your spouse. Break out of old routines. Learn a new skill together; take a cooking class, or go to a painting night. Renew your efforts to learn things about your husband or wife that you don’t yet know - there are plenty. Buy each other a new article of clothing, and then wear them on a date to somewhere you’ve never been before. Choose a book neither of you has read; read it and discuss. Make a list of new bedroom “adventures” and see how long into the new year you get before needing to come up with more.

Shared experiences of new things can strengthen your bonds as they spur the bodies release of  hormones like dopamine, adrenaline, and serotonin. These chemicals all are associated with new and passionate love. Think about it… the beginning of any relationship is marked by novelty, mystery and anxiety. Even though you know each other a little better now, you can recreate those bonding experiences by continuing to try new things together.

Marriage and Prayer

So many Christian marriage blogs, books and other media stress the importance of prayer. Pray for your spouse. Pray with your spouse. Pray for your sex life and each other’s well being. Pray before having hard conversations, that God may bless your communication and help you to understand one another. Not that the importance of any of those things should be refuted, but what if it’s also backwards? What if we need to improve our marriages for the benefit of our prayer life?

What if the state of our marriage directly affected the effectiveness of our prayers? The apostle Paul writes in 1 Peter 3:7

Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

As Gary Thomas tells married men in Sacred Marriage “He [Paul] is directly connecting our attitude towards and treatment of our wives with the fundamental Christian discipline of prayer. When we got married, a condition was put on our prayer lives, and that condition is tied directly to how we view and treat our wives.” This verse focuses on men, but the sentiment goes for women as well. This invalidates any and all excuses to avoid working on your marriage; your prayer life depends on it! Of course, there are many facets, many types of intimacy that make up married life and all are important for the overall health of the relationship. If any one of them is lacking, it can affect the rest of them - and your life outside of marriage

In 1 Corinthians 7:5 Paul again links prayer and the marriage relationship - specifically to the physical component.

Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

According to Paul here, for married couples sex comes first and foremost. Then prayer... and then more sex! The inference is that if either or both spouses is feeling deprived, then Satan has a foothold into their life and prayer suffers. God puts a premium value on relationships. In fact, to Him our relationships with each other are the most important thing! Read Christ’s words in Matthew 5:23-24

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

Jesus is saying that God doesn’t want your sacrifice if there is a relationship in your life that isn’t right. Marriage is the most important earthly relationship, therefore it needs to be set right first, before we offer our gifts, our prayers or ourselves to God.

For married people, marriage is the foundation of everything else in their life. It is home base from whence you go forth into the world. When it is going well, both spouses are nigh invincible! But if the marriage is hurting, it drastically affects how effective the rest of your life is. It can hinder your work, put a damper on other relationships and negatively impact your mission and ministry efforts. More so, as married people we must consider our marriage as a large part of our ministry. If we choose to be married then caring for that union is an integral part of our kingdom work. How we ‘do’ marriage is vital in giving our lives a solid platform from which to operate AND in providing a picture to the world of God’s love for creation. If things in your marriage are not what you want them to be, pray for God’s help of course. But then take action! Pray that God would show you what you can do to improve the situation, what actions you can take to make things better. Doing so will increase the impact that you, through your efforts - and your prayers - can make on the world, doing your part to usher in God’s kingdom.

Language Lessons

Proverbs 22:6 says “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” As discussed last month, the subtle meaning lost in translation is that each child is different, and thus so is “the way they should go.” This holds true for all people, even into adulthood. Each of us is “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) with a unique set of personality quirks and flaws, dreams, wants and desires. Each of us is also ‘built’ to give and receive love differently. Gary Chapman explores this in his book The Five Love Languages. Each person has one main one, and some mix of the other four languages. Chapman defines the five as Quality Time, Acts of Service, Gifts, Words of Affirmation and Physical Touch. There is a quiz online that you can take to find out what yours is at https://www.5lovelanguages.com/quizzes/

The danger in knowing which language your spouse ‘speaks’ is thinking that you know then how to love them. Using the language metaphor, knowing someone speaks Swahili is a long way from knowing how to speak to them and be understood in their native tongue. Obviously, you still need to learn their language, especially if it is different than yours! Even if you share a language, it goes without saying that you probably are fluent in different ‘dialects.’ The good news is you probably share the same actual, spoken language, and can discuss what loving - and being loved - means to each other. 

Since every human is unique, each of the five languages has an infinite number of dialects. A husband who knows his wife has “acts of service” as her main love language might think he is loving her by taking care of her car; changing the oil, checking the tires, keeping it clean, etc. Cars are important to him, and therefore he believes he is loving her. She might not care about the car though, but would be thrilled by him vacuuming and doing the laundry. A husband with words of affirmation as his language might not be moved by his wife telling him directly she finds him attractive (she values attractiveness, and thus thinks commenting on his appearance is loving him). He would beam though, to see her praising his fatherhood skills or ability to fix things on social media. We all come into marriage with prejudices, predilections and predispositions… the only way to find out what your spouse’s are is to talk with them.

The last wrinkle in this is figuring out how to ‘speak’ your spouse’s language in all aspects of your lives together. Ask yourself how can acts of service manifest when planning date nights? How can gifts be given without spending money. How many different ways can words of affirmation be given? How many different media can they be used in? How can physical touch be incorporated into activities that *aren’t* sexual? Conversely, how can the other four languages be brought *into* the bedroom?

Proverbs 18:15 says:

The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.

Marriage is ordained by God to be for a lifetime, so that we have as long as possible to learn about our spouses. Understanding what their love language is should be an early lesson, as it is foundational to figuring out how to love them as they want and need. Mastering that language should be an ongoing pursuit. Their dialogue is unique to them, and alive! Like all languages, new words are added and old words fall out of use. Like marriage itself, undertaking “language lessons” is a choice you must make - over and over - as long as you both shall live.

To Each His (or her) Own

Proverbs 22: 6 says

Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

This is an extremely important verse for parents, especially when you dig in to the original language and unpack what “the way they should go” means. This verse is often taken to imply an objective truth, and “the way” is taken as being universal, always the same, and applicable to every child. The word “they” though, is also extremely important. If we also take into account Psalm 139:14  “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made,” we understand that each of us is unique, created by God to do specific works created for us to usher in his kingdom. It is sometimes hard for parents to grasp that they have work to do to understand who God has created their children to be. “The way they should go” is as unique as their fingerprints, and it is a parent’s job to discover this so that they can better love their offspring and help to “start them off” on the path God has prepared.

The same holds true for adults! We were all once those children, fearfully and wonderfully made, with kingdom work that we were uniquely created to do. As individuals, we each have our own ways of doing things, whether that be God’s work, our jobs - or housework. It is important when we are married to be cognizant that our spouses will do things differently than we will. If we are inflexible in our views on how tasks should be accomplished we might criticize them for not doing things the way we would. If we make a habit of this our spouse may be resentful, and may become less willing to voluntarily pitch in and try to help. This can eventually lead to contempt (in both parties) if not called out and discussed, and an understanding reached.

With life being so busy, it is imperative that both spouses are working towards common goals, each doing their part to keep their family functioning, and their household running smoothly. If one party starts nitpicking the other about how things get done, it hurts them and the marriage.
The biblical imperative is clear: 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up.”  Be happy that they are helping, be grateful and encouraging, and they will be more willing to continue to find ways to pitch in. A finished task is a beautiful thing!

The Four Horsemen IV: Contempt

Drs. John and Julie Gottman are psychologists and therapists who have focused on the study of marriage for over four decades. John Gottman with a partner has studied thousands of couples and is famous for being able to predict with over 90%  certainty what a couple’s happiness level will be in three years AND whether or not a couple will divorce - after an interview lasting only a hour. Even after 15 minutes their prediction success rate was over 80%, and after 3 minutes they were still in the 70% range. They have broken down and analyzed their findings and have come up with four communication styles that they call “the four horsemen” because they can usher in a relationship apocalypse. They are: criticism, defensiveness, stonewalling and contempt.

Contempt

The final - and worst - of the four horsemen is contempt. Gottman’s forty years of research shows it to be the sign that, if present, is the most sure sign that divorce is impending or imminent. The top dictionary definition of contempt is “The feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn.” No wonder it is a bad sign if present in a marriage relationship! It can be caused by long standing negative thoughts, perhaps rooted in displeasure at certain behaviors but it is often expressed as attacks on the person. Contempt can manifest in a multitude of ways: insults and name calling, sneering, eye rolling, sarcasm and mean humor but all of them - at their core - express superiority and distaste, derision or even disgust. Simply stated, contempt is viewing someone and behaving towards them as if they are lesser, and you yourself are greater in comparison. 

The bible of course warns against behaving thus. Paul writes in Romans 12:3

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

Contempt sets up an adversarial relationship where a cooperational one should be. While it is directed at others, it hurts one’s self as well. Studies have shown that people in contemptuous relationships are more prone to illness and more stressed. It erodes health of all types - physical, emotional, and psychological.

If contempt is poison to a marriage, the anti-venom is two fold.

The first part of the ‘cure, as with most problems in relationships, is communication. Specifically, one must communicate their feelings about the behaviors that are causing consternation. If bottled up they can lead to disdain towards the other party as a person. It must be stated honestly and openly, and often. Both spouses must maintain an open dialogue so that issues can be discussed and hopefully resolved before they fester. Left unspoken these feelings can grow into problems so big they are not easily solved. Be very careful to state how you feel, how you are affected and not state how their actions are a problem, or how they are “wrong.” 

As important as an atmosphere of openness is part two: a culture of admiration and fondness. Strive always to remember the things about your spouse that caused you to fall in love with them in the first place! The Gottmans found in their research that couples who viewed their shared history positively were strengthened and protected against the effects of contempt. Reminisce! Focus on the good things, the fun times, and even on struggles you overcame together! Think of how you view your past in terms of Paul’s words in Phillipians 4:8

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Ellie Lisitsa, an author with the Gottman Institute puts it thus:

“Although happy couples will feel frustrated at times by their partner’s personality flaws, they still feel that their partner is worthy of honor and respect.”

We are ALL flawed. We are human, finite and imperfect. Remember that you are in need of grace before attacking your spouse personally after judging their behavior. Christ calls us to emulate him; forgive as you also need forgiveness, show grace as you also need it.

Always focus on the fact that you and your spouse are in this thing called life TOGETHER.