[Discoveries] 09-12-08 The secret of contentment -- Deuteronomy 5:21

[Inspiration in Your Inbox]

/*You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. -- Deuteronomy 5:21*/

What is the secret of contentment in marriage?

I think my answer will surprise you.

We need to receive love from outside the marriage.

No, I'm not advocating an affair. Not at all!

Instead, I am suggesting that working on our marriages is the wrong 
place to start if we want to be happily married. Rather, we need to work 
on opening our hearts to the Lord.

I am married to a good woman. My wife is godly. She is patient. (She 
needs to be, living with me!) She is wise. (Every good idea I ever came 
up with was something Kim told me to do six months earlier.) She is a 
wonderful mother to our four children. She understands and cares about 
what is important. She's unpretentious. I could go on, but you get the 
idea.

My wife is sort of like Mary Poppins: practically perfect in every way.

But my wife does not have the power to prevent me from having an affair. 
Even if she were 100% perfect, she still couldn't stop me from desiring 
and pursuing someone else.

This is where God comes in. A man who chases another woman is looking 
for a solution that only God can provide.

If you are married, I don't know what your spouse is like. He or she 
might be great, and then again, there might be a great need for 
improvement. But your spouse cannot fulfill the great longings of your 
soul. And neither can anyone else. That's why adultery doesn't work. But 
Jesus does.

Work on your marriage -- by all means, yes! But don't start or stop 
there. Open every hurt to the Lord. He will soothe. He will comfort. He 
will protect. And as His love is poured out in our hearts, we realize 
that we never really wanted the other woman (or man) -- it was Jesus we 
wanted all along.

Be encouraged!
Dwight

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