Marriage from a ‘Christ Perspective’ - Part 6

(Mark 9: 35) – “Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, ‘If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.’”

The whole concept of serving others has gotten lost in our self-centered, self-serving world. We often hear slogans of “Have it your way,” or “Because you’re worth it,” or “You deserve better.” Even our social media accounts feed into our self-focus through us feeling successful when we have more ‘likes,’ ‘impressions,’ or ‘followers.’ This mentality has even poisoned, what should be, our closest of relationships, our marriage. Marriage is a sacrament of service and sacrifice and yet many people feel alone in their marriage and emotionally ‘hungry.’ Why, because we have forgotten how to ‘feed’ one another.

As spouses, we vowed to be each other’s helpmate and this comes with a responsibility to understand each other’s needs and to help each other in getting these needs met. At times it will be simple to accomplish. At other times, it will be greatly sacrificial. But that is the weight of our covenantal promise to each other. This sacrificial giving not only helps our spouse, but also helps us to become better through growing in love and virtue.

We must fight against the culture that entices us to seek pleasure over longer term satisfaction. We must fight again complacency that creates cracks in our marital foundation and often causes us to become more easily annoyed, easily disconnected, and easily inattentive to each other’s needs, which in turn leads to an unwillingness, at times, to serve. 

Every day we must intentionally seek ways to help each other through the difficulties of life, to be present with our spouse in those special moments of life, to guard our hearts from complacency, and to create more ways to ‘feed’ and enliven our relationship. Jesus is encouraging us to know that we become ‘first’ in the eyes of God, when we are willing to lift up others, especially our spouse, through self-sacrificial love.   

ACTION STEP: This week, seek more ways to serve your spouse with joy.