Wahoo!! Gonna get some dirt under my fingernails today as I'm outside enjoying His creation!!
We talked through the "L" and the "E" of our acronym in Love and Respect this past week. Just a refresher…
C..loseness
O..penness
U..nderstanding
P..eacemaker
L..oyalty
E..steem
Loyalty…my Golden Retriever that is laying right beside me as I type is a perfect God picture to me of Loyalty. He is always by my side, follows me around, and is the protector of our yard. As we talked through in class in our working definition of Loyalty, we described it as…faithful, on my team, on my side, committed, unconditional fidelity, trust, "for me", without question, allegiance
We found that we are loyal to a lot of different things/people in this life…God; t.v.; sports teams (anyone being loyal to some March Madness?...be sure to carve out a bit of time with your wife and family as your brain cells are withering away!! haha) kids; family; spouse; work; friendships; hobbies It was interesting to me that the spouse got listed so far down in our brainstorming even when we're in marriage class! We are all so different, but it would be interesting to take some time and write down what you feel like you’re most loyal to, and then ask your spouse to write a list of what they think you're loyal to…
We also dove into some pretty sensitive stuff as we talked about the visual age that we live in and how our minds, especially men's, are being bombarded with sexual images, from commercials, to catalogs, to Sports Illustrated, to pornography…Satan's lures are everywhere and he knows our weaknesses. Where loyalty is concerned, a wife has to be reassured that you are hers, and she is yours. Making comments about another woman, her looks, her build, her body parts, especially in front of your wife, is NOT COOL. Most of us agreed, that when that is done, we feel like we're not enough for our husbands, that we are somehow "less". Now, as I addressed in class, we, as wives, tired wives and moms, can tend to move to a place of comfort, ease, sameness with our man, and lose some of that pursuing that we did with one another when we dated. Our marriage should be the most important relationship on this earth, and as we all know, it takes WORK!!! As one woman noted in class, she heard a phrase on Focus on the Family that really struck a chord with her. "Have an affair with your husband, or someone else will". Our loyalties have to be guarded…first with Christ and then with one another. Marriages just don't work well without Jesus!!
Esteem…simply put…to have high confidence in something or someone
I know that women need it, but honestly, I don't know of a soul who doesn't. To be respected, honored, cherished, believed in, highly regarded, is something that we all long for, but I know that can easily be transferred onto humans above God in a heartbeat. It is reassuring to know that above man, Jesus highly esteems us, and as we seek to let our identities rest in Him, we are satisfied.
Here are some ways a husband/wife can esteem one another.
Tell one that you are proud of her/him.
Speak highly of one another in front of others.
Give encouragement and praise
Be physically affectionate in public
Teach the children to show her/him respect
Value one another's opinion
Make her/him feel of most importance
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