Monday, July 16, 2018

Value: Attributed worth, usefulness, or importance


     We all want to be valued; in fact, mankind’s search for significance has driven men and women to seek to establish their value and prove their importance in a variety of ways through the ages. When dating and newly in love, people express their appreciation of the person they are focused on, but after marriage, that appreciation - that attributed worth usually is not expressed very often, if at all. In our busyness and pressures of daily tasks, we rush through the day and tend to devalue our spouse more than value him or her. We react out of our stress and what we perceive must be done and often hurt rather than help our spouse.
     Paul’s admonishment to the Philippians applies to us also: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3). We are to live humbly and consider all people better than ourselves, especially our spouses. We are not talking about tolerating the sin of others - we are talking about having an humble attitude that values others. This isn’t difficult, but requires that we stop and do something to demonstrate our spouse’s worth, usefulness, and importance to us and our marriage relationship.
     How much time does it take to stop your spouse, look him or her in the eye and say, ‘I appreciate you, you make my life better.’ I’m going to give you all a challenge - a challenge that I am taking up also; do at least one thing daily for the next 30 days to express your spouse’s value. (Perhaps we all can make a comment on the Fortified Marriages Facebook page or this blog and relate something that came of this challenge.) Every day for 30 days, make it a habit to
value your spouse; acknowledge verbally, or by a written note or card, that he or she has worth, usefulness, and importance to you

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