Couple
Today was unique. I got up this morning, showered, got ready for work, ate breakfast, got my stuff together and went all the way to Melissa's chair, sat back down and finished two books. Current office space challenges make it hard to get a lot of studying done at the actual office and I needed to catch up on some reading. Home worked quite nicely.
Mark Yaconelli's book Contemplative Youth Ministry is one of the more meaningful books I've read with regards to youth ministry in a long time. It was a hard read at times as I came to realize how many opportunities I've missed to simply be present with students, growing and listening with them. I'll write more on this later.
The second book of the day was a much more personal read, one that I needed to finish and one that hurts to read because of how much it reveals of personal failures. Dr. Emerson Eggerichs' Love and Respect has literally swept the world with it's practical, marriage transforming, biblically based principles. I've known how good it was but never found/made time to dive into it until now.
The basic premise is that to energize your marriage relationship, a foundation of love and respect needs to be built. Men crave the respect of their wives and wives long for the love of their husband.
The part that I have since re-read and will be learning from for the rest of my life was that which dealt with how to spell love to your wife. As only Christian authors can, he explained it with an acronym (think Sonlife): COUPLE
To spell out love to my wife, proactively demonstrating and practicing these areas is imperative:
C--closeness
O--openness
U--understanding
P--Peacemaking
L--Loyalty
E--Esteem
Going through this list I am struck by two things. First, it makes sense. The more I discover about my wife, the more Dr. Eggerichs' words resonate. The second thing that comes to mind is how poorly I have spelled love to my wonderful wife. There are times when I do well but that's not enough, I must consistently do well. She deserves that and so much more.
As he finishes the book the author puts everything in perspective with a quote that literally brought a wealth of emotion to my soul:
"In the ultimate sense, your marriage has nothing to do with your spouse. It has everything to do with your relationship to Jesus Christ." (279)
One of the tangible ways I love my wife is showing her the love of the Father. One of the tangible ways I love the Father is loving my wife completely and unconditionally.
I've only been married 5 1/2 years. I look forward to a lifetime of growing together with Melissa, there is no one I'd rather grow old with. I am so grateful that God and Melissa have given me the chance to learn the depth of love by loving Melissa.
Mark Yaconelli's book Contemplative Youth Ministry is one of the more meaningful books I've read with regards to youth ministry in a long time. It was a hard read at times as I came to realize how many opportunities I've missed to simply be present with students, growing and listening with them. I'll write more on this later.
The second book of the day was a much more personal read, one that I needed to finish and one that hurts to read because of how much it reveals of personal failures. Dr. Emerson Eggerichs' Love and Respect has literally swept the world with it's practical, marriage transforming, biblically based principles. I've known how good it was but never found/made time to dive into it until now.
The basic premise is that to energize your marriage relationship, a foundation of love and respect needs to be built. Men crave the respect of their wives and wives long for the love of their husband.
The part that I have since re-read and will be learning from for the rest of my life was that which dealt with how to spell love to your wife. As only Christian authors can, he explained it with an acronym (think Sonlife): COUPLE
To spell out love to my wife, proactively demonstrating and practicing these areas is imperative:
C--closeness
O--openness
U--understanding
P--Peacemaking
L--Loyalty
E--Esteem
Going through this list I am struck by two things. First, it makes sense. The more I discover about my wife, the more Dr. Eggerichs' words resonate. The second thing that comes to mind is how poorly I have spelled love to my wonderful wife. There are times when I do well but that's not enough, I must consistently do well. She deserves that and so much more.
As he finishes the book the author puts everything in perspective with a quote that literally brought a wealth of emotion to my soul:
"In the ultimate sense, your marriage has nothing to do with your spouse. It has everything to do with your relationship to Jesus Christ." (279)
One of the tangible ways I love my wife is showing her the love of the Father. One of the tangible ways I love the Father is loving my wife completely and unconditionally.
I've only been married 5 1/2 years. I look forward to a lifetime of growing together with Melissa, there is no one I'd rather grow old with. I am so grateful that God and Melissa have given me the chance to learn the depth of love by loving Melissa.
posted by Mike at 9:01 PM
1 Comments:
Hey, way to blog. You blog man! I read your blog. It's cheesy and cute...uhhhh, yeah, good post.
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