What Will You Give Up When You Marry?

What Will You Give Up When You Marry?

Jesus looked at him and loved him. “one thing you lack,” he said. “go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” - Mark 10:21

Jesus looked at him and loved him. “one thing you lack,” he said. “go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

What did you give up to marry your partner? Have you ever thought about it? Some people think they are giving up their freedom!

Many people today simply try to bring their single lifestyles into their marriage relationships.

They think a marriage partner is just one more addition to their already busy lives. They believe they will somehow be able to fit in a husband or wife around everything else.

For example, they may continue to go to the gym four nights a week to work out by themselves, or go out with friends three times a week without the partner.

A rude awakening occurs when the truth of what marriage really is penetrates these people: “A marriage is not a joining of two worlds, but an abandoning of two worlds in order that one new one might be formed.

In this sense, the call to be married bears comparison to Jesus’ advice to the rich young man to sell all his possessions and to follow Him. It is a vocation to total abandonment.”

When you marry, you will have to make some adjustments and change a few habits. Perhaps you may put some educational dreams on hold for a while or delay buying something you have wanted for a long time.

As Jesus’ message to the rich young ruler illustrates, true commitment to someone means much more than that. When you marry, you will begin to fulfill one of Jesus’ commands.

Mike Mason relates: “For most people . . . marriage is the single most wholehearted step they will ever take toward a fulfillment of Jesus’ command to love one’s neighbor, and often enough a neighbor who has been left beaten and wounded on the road of love, whom all the rest of the world has in a sense passed by.”

How can you be faithful in fulfilling the commands of Jesus to love your partner selflessly? It means:

• Doing what your partner prefers for an evening;

• Watching a TV program your partner prefers to watch;

• Cooking a meal the way your partner likes it rather than the way you have always had it;

• Going shopping the way your partner enjoys to shop;

• Listening to your partner more than you think is necessary;

• Protecting your partner from an embarrassing situation;

• Attending an activity you never dreamed you would ever attend, because it is a favorite of your partner;

• Not going to the favorite vacation spot you have been going to for the past 17 years, but being willing to try something totally new;

• Learning to love the animals your partner loves and dividing the house and yard into an animals-allowed section and a no-trespassing area;

• Learning to either expand or diminish your level of input depending upon the communication style of your partner;

• Hanging up your clothes and rinsing your dishes immediately, although this was not done in your home as you were being raised.

Whatever it is, large or small, it can’t be imagined or fulfilled without the grace and love of God.

What a tragedy if His grace were not available. Thank God for His continuing grace.