How are you treating your body?

Reading: Jeremiah 40-41, Psalm 38, and Ephesians 5

Scripture: Ephesians 5:28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

Thoughts: After two failed marriages I must look back and see where my fault was in those marriages. First, I was too selfish. Yes, I am still selfish today, but I have also learned how to put my wife before myself. I spent many years in search of self-gratification only looking for the things that fill my wants and needs. That is in part what caused those marriages to fail. Two, I could not love those women the way they deserved to be loved. Here Paul is calling us to love them as we love ourselves, there are other places where we are exhorted to love as Christ loved the Church. When loving ourselves we take care of all our needs, we look to find pleasure in this world, sometimes to the detriment of our health. If we look at loving our wife as Christ loved the church, that is a sacrificial love, a Love that is willing to give up everything to save and serve the one He loves. I know that part of my failure as a husband was that I could not put my wife’s needs first and looking back I do not know if I could have laid my life down for those women or stood between them and the attacks that could come. We need to walk in the headship that God has placed on us, not a controller but the source. God did not say He was the controller of the church he said he is the source and we are called to be the head of the family as He is the head of the church. What are we pouring out into our family, is it Love, honor, grace, and mercy or are we filling our homes with selfishness, strife, control, and fear? I struggle with pouring the right things into my family I still fail, yet God continues to work in me that I may be the husband and father that my wife and children deserve.

Prayer: Father God, you are the example I strive to emulate, your love knows no bounds. I thank you that you are the Good Good Father and that you are worthy of all praise. I thank you that you have brought into my life imperfect men who are still shining your light and love into their families and the world. I thank you for bringing me into that family that I can be poured into so that I can pour into others. I ask that you continue to open my eyes to see the things I need to remove and help me to find the necessary help to remove those things from my life.