Marriage and Lent

     Today, February 14, 2018, is the beginning of Lent. For many, Lent is not necessarily viewed as a good thing. It is often seen as a time of sacrifice, denial, and painfully giving up something you enjoy for the next 40 days.
     But Lent is not meant to be about making yourself miserable for a little over a month, as if in some sad, sadistic way that makes you better prepared for Holy Week and Easter Sunday.  Lent is about refocusing on the Kingdom of God and letting Christ's Lordship have its rightful place in your life.
     In Christian marriage, the Lordship of Christ is central to a holy, covenant relationship.  So, what are you doing during the Lenten season for the sake of your marriage? While eradicating bad behaviors that are destructive to your marriage is something that needs to happen, I'd like to suggest that you use Lent this year to initiate (or re-engage) positive behaviors that will be a blessing to your marriage.
     So, for the next 40 days, consider ways you can be an intentional blessing to your spouse, things like:

• Express gratitude
• Say "I love you" more
• Initiate intimacy
• Get rid of things that distract you from listening to your spouse attentively
• Do a chore that your spouse normally does
• Give your spouse visible reminders of your marriage covenant
• Play a game together
• Fix your spouse's favorite meal for him/her
• Laugh together
• Pray over your spouse
• Hold hands
• Live in forgiveness
• Sincerely compliment your spouse
• Write a note to your spouse's family thanking them for the blessing of your spouse in your life
• Take a walk together
• Kiss more
• Read scripture together
• Serve someone else together

There are so many more things that could be added to this list.  It doesn't matter if you do the same thing each day for the next 40 days, or if you do 40 different spouse-honoring things.  Just let the next 40 days be a time of marriage-building intentionality.  Let Lent give Christ his rightful place as Lord of your marriage relationship as you "submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." (Eph. 5:21)