I am my beloved’s…

Sit­ting in the park the other day, one of our friends shared with me that she loves the way my hus­band looks at me. It took me aback. I *know* how my hus­band steals looks at me, how we con­nect with our eyes, and how spe­cial it is. But, I had no idea that any­one else ever saw it. My hus­band still makes my knees weak. He gives me those but­ter­flies. I like to watch him while he is doing the things he does.

This last week, he was busy help­ing with the Fam­ily Eco­nom­ics Con­fer­ence. He did a lit­tle bit of emcee work, mod­er­ated a cou­ple of pan­els. That sort of thing. Every once in awhile, I would send him a text just to let him know that I was think­ing of him. I would watch him read the text, look up, and look for me. Our eyes would meet, and he’d give me that smile.

I love to get texts and emails from him. He sends them to me just to say he loves me, or some­thing along those lines. We flirt in our lit­tle texts and emails. It keeps things fresh and cur­rent with us. It keeps us con­nected. He has been so incred­i­bly busy over the last cou­ple of years. He has so many spin­ning plates to keep going. And so do I. It would be easy to lose each other in the midst of life. But, what would it ben­e­fit us or our chil­dren or the church, or the min­istry he works with, if we were to lose our mar­riage, the spark that we have, the joy we have?

God has truly pro­tected us and our mar­riage. I give Him all the credit and glory for it. My hus­band has strived to keep our rela­tion­ship a pri­or­ity in his life. And by doing so, my loy­alty to him, my love and affec­tion for him, and my heart for our home, has grown and flourished.

Ladies, I want to encour­age you to remind your hus­band of your affec­tions for him. Even, or rather, espe­cially, in times of dif­fi­culty and stress. It is never too late to build upon what you have. Take it up a notch. Don’t get lazy in the rela­tion­ship. Remind him of what it was about you that he fell in love with. Remem­ber why you fell in love with him. Build on that.

I have found that it can be so easy to get into a rut and just do the next thing on the list, ignor­ing the more impor­tant things that never actu­ally make it on the list. What we do may not in any way appeal to you or your hus­band. But I bet you know what will.

When my friend shared her obser­va­tions with me, her hus­band chimed in that he thinks Mike and I are such a great team, that we are so good together. I beamed inside. I know this is true. I live it daily. But, to hear that some­one else sees it, some­one I respect, my heart just about skipped a beat. May the Lord be glo­ri­fied for any good that is seen in us. It is all because of His abun­dant mercy and grace in our lives. My hus­band and I are both nat­u­rally self­ish and unlov­ing. As are most peo­ple. But, by God’s grace, we are able to love deeply. And my prayer is that our chil­dren will carry this legacy into their fam­i­lies. And that per­haps you, too, will be blessed as well. Let’s not depend on our­selves for this, but rely wholly upon the Lord, from whose hand every good gift comes.