Living Episitles of Love

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

(Proverbs 31:30)

Most men will have to admit, we are nor drawn to the woman with the good personality! Men are visual! God has equipped us to appreciate the physical beauty of the women He has created. But boy, do we abuse that beauty! We think we are supposed to appreciate all the women we see . . . WRONG!!!! God has that specific woman for that one man and if just wait on the Lord . . . well . . . . Remember, guys (and ladies)Adam was not out looking for a wife, God brought her to him! He was busy working at a real job!

But back to the verse . . . though we make first contact with our eyes, it is the heart of the woman that we grow to appreciate over the years. Marriage . . . yes marriage (not living together practicing marriage)is for a lifetime. As gravity takes its toll on both men and women and our sight becomes a bit challenged, it is the heart . . . the personality of our spouse that we cherish.

Marriages reflect the relationship God has with us and we have with Him. It takes faith and sacrifice. It takes grace, forgiveness, and at times, forgetfullness. How the Christian husband and wife live life shows a desperate world the visible Christ. We become living epistles of love . . . God's love!

What a challenge the following is . . . .

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church for we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

(Ephesians 5:31-33)