“Our Daily Bread”     http://odb.org/

The Daily Devotions of Greg Laurie                                  

http://www.harvest.org/devotional/daily-devotions/home.ht   

“Homily Grits Devotional”   http://www.homilygrits.com/

Proverbs 19:14… Houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers, But a prudentwifeisfrom the LORD.  (NKJV) 

I wrote this 2 years ago today, as a tribute to my loving wife Madeline…who has truly been longsuffering by putting up with me for the past 42 years today !!  My wife is my best friend…my companion…and a blessing from God that mere words on a page could never adequately describe…

I am re-posting the original day’s writing again, with an even deeper love for Madeline…because so many people in the last 2 years have not had a chance to learn about a this opening scripture, which changed my life views about my dear wife forever !!

Posted 11/27/2011

Today I celebrate my 40^th anniversary with my wife Madeline… As I look around at young married couples today, with the divorce rates going through the roof…I am so thankful that my wife and I are still together after so many years…

No one ever said that being married was easy…that life would always be a bowl of cherries, so to speak… A successful marriage (in my humble opinion), takes a combination of love, trust, submission, and yes…work at times…to maintain a meaningful and long-term relationship…

The Bible tells us that the husband is to be in charge of the family…1 Corinthians 11:3… But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.  (NKJV) 

I have seen marriages fail because the husband demanded that the wife submit to the husband’s unfair or selfish requests… Marriage is a give and take proposition… More importantly…one should always try to please their spouse before their own selfish desires… Is this easy?  Heck No !!  Our natural desire is to do what we want, when we want to… But just like all Christians are to submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit, I believe a successful marriage will more likely be accomplished, if we put our spouse and their feelings ahead of our own…

This opening scripture totally changed my outlook on my wife, when I read this scripture several years ago… If one stops and remembers that their spouse is a gift from the Lord, how can anything the Lord gives them be looked at as anything other than being perfect… The natural tendency as we get older is to gain some weight, start to wrinkle and droop in places, and then have our hair turn grey… For me, realizing that my wife was a gift from God, let me look past her aging exterior…  Any gift from God must be cherished; and just as we promised on the day we were married… I _____, take you ______, to be my wedded wife/husband…  To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish ’tilldeathdouspart.

Heavenly Father, I pray that Your Word about a wife being a gift from You, would touch the hearts and minds of every married individual, as it did for me… I pray Lord, that any married couple going through hard times, would first look to You for direction… And then Lord, I pray that they would humble themselves to putting their spouse’s needs and desires ahead of their own… I pray for this humility for all of today’s married readers…in Jesus’ most precious name and for His sake…Amen…

written by bruce r mills

P.S.  Happy Anniversary Madeline !!