Fridays Daily Hope

God Uses Your Spouse to Build Your Character

God Uses Your Spouse to Build Your Character
By Rick Warren

“Love sincerely .... Hold on to what is good. Be devoted to each other like a loving family. Excel in showing respect for each other” (Romans 12:9-10 GW).

God created marriage for the perfection of our character. It is in relationships that we learn to be unselfish and loving. And no relationship has greater impact on your life than marriage if you get married.

The purpose of life is to grow up and realize it’s not all about you. In fact real happiness comes in giving your life away and being unselfish and serving and loving. This is called maturity. Life is a laboratory of learning how to love. It’s the most important thing in life because God is love, and he wants you to become like him. He wants to make you like Jesus Christ. He wants you to build character.

If you’re married, the number one tool that God uses in your life to build Christ-like character is your spouse. Because every day you get hundreds of opportunities to not think about yourself but instead about the other person.

The Bible says, “Love sincerely .... Hold on to what is good. Be devoted to each other like a loving family. Excel in showing respect for each other” (Romans 12:9-10 GW).

Do you do that in your marriage? Do you have a competition of who can show the most respect? Before I got married so many years ago I really thought I knew how to love a woman. But I knew nothing about love! Now, after 40 years of marriage, I know that love washes the dishes. I know that love takes out the garbage. I know that love puts the other person first.

Excel in showing respect for each other so that you grow to be more like Christ.

Talk It Over

• Think of the most successful marriage you know of. How would you describe the couple’s relationship? How do they treat each other?
• If you are not married, what relationships is God using to build your character? What are you learning about how to love and show respect?
• Try today to outdo your spouse in showing love and respect. What is the effect?