Serving Others

I am catching up on my "Chaos to Calm" series at www.proverbs31sisters.com this week and the focus has been on looking outside ourselves for satisfaction, finding joy in serving our husbands and children and those around us.

Growing up, I often heard that I had a "low self-esteem" and lacked "self-confidence", that I needed to "learn to love myself before I could love others." This is just more evidence of the humanistic, self-serving society we live in today, and is completely contradictory to God's instruction to "die to self".

Three key Bible verses struck a chord with me this week...

"The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil." -Proverbs 31:11

For my husband to trust me, he must know that I am putting his needs and concerns first and foremost in my life. This trust requires self-sacrifice on my part to show my husband that his money, home, children and other important things, are safe in my care.

"As I have loved you, so you should also love one another." John 13:35

Loving one another as Jesus loves us requires absolute servitude and self-sacrifice. Jesus paid the ultimate price, death on the cross, because of His love for us. There are not many circumstances in which we can die for a friend or loved one, but we can show the love of Jesus by serving them with our time, devotion, prayer, and support. This, too, requires that we put others before ourselves; sometimes even those are not friends or loved ones. God does not say "..so you should love your friends and family", He says "love one another", everyone we are in contact with falls into that category!

"My beloved is mine, and I am his; he feedeth among the lilies." Song of Songs 2:16

While it is important that your husband trust you with his finances, his home, his children, etc.; it is also vitally import to a healthy marriage that he trust you with his heart, his love, and his physical needs. Your husband needs to know that he is the love of your life, always. Often in marriage, life can get in the way of affection and romance; but, God calls us to maintain a healthy balance by caring for our husband's needs in this area as well. Showing affection, even when we don't always feel like it, is an important part of respect and submission in marriage and leads to a healthy and happy home. This also requires, at times, that we put aside our selfish excuses..."I'm too tired", "I have a headache", "I am angry at something that happened today"...and focus on the needs of our husband, rather than ourselves.

This week I am definitely challenged to focus outside myself, I will be making and effort to make my husband my #1 priority after God.

Love & Prayers!