For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. — Galatians 5:13
**********
Scott and I agree that the past two posts were the hardest to write. For me to speak to husbands about loving their wives and him to speak to wives about submission was equal parts terrifying and uncomfortable. But then I started working on today’s post — and, y’all, I’m excited.
Here’s the thing: Scott married a very imperfect woman and I married a imperfect guy. We both have areas where we struggle with sin. We both have strong personalities. And, if we’re honest, we both like to have things go our own way.
Over the years, all of those truths have added up to more than a few moments of intense conflict {and maybe even a door slam or two}. But no matter how mad we’ve been {and we’ve been pretty mad some times!}, no matter how often we looked at the other and wondered what in the world we’d gotten ourselves in to, no matter what, we got up the next morning and started another day together.
We could have held grudges.
We could have built walls.
We could have given up.
We could have walked away.
We had the freedom to do any or all of those things.
And, in our flesh, there were probably moments when that seemed like the best option.
But we made a decision long before we said our vows — we chose “us” no matter what.
It sounds simple, I know. And it really is. But simple isn’t the same as easy. It’s hard to dig in and do the work to keep a marriage strong. It’s not always fun to work through the seasons when everything isn’t smooth sailing.
Our road hasn’t been bump-free. We met and married within a year. We both brought some serious baggage into our marriage. On our one-year anniversary Scott resigned from the church he was serving and wasn’t really sure what he was going to do next. It took us four years to have a baby and our dreams for more children had to be let go. In the past 20 years we’ve buried Scott’s dad, three great-grandmothers, and one set of my grandparents. We spent nearly 11 years living 9 hours away from our closest relatives. Scott spent several years battling a life-threatening blood disorder. I had a heart attack two years ago. We’ve seen two of our brothers’ marriages end.
There have been times when being together was just hard.
But we have both known being apart would be harder.
All those hard days and all those sleepless nights bound us together. We’ve been together for almost half our lives. Our individual histories have been overshadowed by our shared experiences.
Scott’s call to love me and my call to submit to him are things we don’t really think about much anymore. We just do them. Yesterday, Scott wrote that husbands need wives to give them the opportunity to run the gauntlet. I imagine being married to me has felt a lot like that football drill sometimes. But he’s stuck with it. He’s kept pushing through every barrier and he loves me well.
Paul encouraged the Galatians to exhibit the freedom they have in Christ by serving each other in love. And I think that’s a pretty great admonition for all us married folk as well. Yes, we have the freedom to demand our own way. Yes, we even have the freedom to leave. But what if we use that freedom to serve with humility and to love one other with sacrifice? Imagine how that could change our homes, our communities, and even our culture.
~ Teri Lynne
**********
Today’s Prayer
Lord, forgive us for the times we’ve used our freedom to indulge our flesh, for the ways we’ve given our own desires a higher priority than they deserve. Give us a wider view of the freedom we have in You. Help us to see that freedom is really an open door for us to love and serve each other. May we humbly serve and sacrificially love — not out of obligation but out of freedom. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
#MarriagePrayers: May we humbly serve and sacrificially love each other. Share on X**********
Thank you for joining us for #MarriagePrayers: 31 Verses to Pray for Your Marriage. Scott and I will be sharing a new verse and prayer every day throughout May, leading up to our 20th anniversary on June 1. You can find every day’s post indexed here. We pray you will be encouraged and challenged as you pray God’s Word for your marriage.
Leave a Reply