Focus on the 80 Percent
“Wives, understand and support your husbands by submitting to them in ways that honor the Master. Husbands, go all out in love for your wives. Don’t take advantage of them.” (Colossians 3:18-19 NIV)
I wonder what the divorce rate would look like if we stopped focusing on what our spouse does wrong and started to focus on what they do right. I was listening to a speaker the other day and he said, “Concentrate on the 80% your spouse does right instead of the other 20%. I think my chin hit the floor, because in that moment, I realized that is exactly what I had been doing. How can we expect anything to be good if all we do is point out the parts that are not perfect.
God didn’t ask us to love our husbands until we couldn’t take it anymore. God didn’t tell us to love our wives unless her mood swings made you crazy. God said submit to him in the ways that honor Me. He said love her so deeply that you see past all the other stuff. It’s hard work committing to live with someone for the rest of your life. It’s not supposed to be easy and it’s not like the movies. After the love part, marriage takes work. It is something that needs constant attention and constant nurturing so that it doesn’t die.
Men, look beneath the surface and find the woman you fell in love with and love her. Ladies, get past the barrier and into his heart and love him like he’s your everything.
God, bless my marriage. It isn’t easy and I am starting to realize that it will take a lot of work to keep us both happy and in love with each other. You’ve spelled out marriage in your Word and we commit to working on achieving that goal.
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