When’s the last time you thanked God for your spouse’s spiritual life? We’re into week three of our Spouse Appreciation Month and we want to deepen our attitude of gratitude this week by focusing on the ways your spouse enriches your spiritual life, both as an individual and as a couple. The Apostle Paul was great at this. He often shared how thankful he was for his co-laborers, his spiritual partners. You might want to take a minute to read 1 Corinthians 1:4-9 and Philippians 1:3-11. If we read the word “Paul” as “I” and the word “you” as “your spouse” in these verses, we have a great pattern for giving thanks for our spouses spiritual support in our lives.
Here’s a list of things we can be thankful for that come out of those verses…our spouse’s salvation, that they’re recipients of God’s grace, for the enriched lives they experience because of these things God has done in their lives, for the spiritual gifts and how they are using them to further the gospel, for their righteous living and Christlike character, for their partnership in sharing the gospel, for the good works that they’re doing, for the work that God is completing in their lives, and that their love may abound more and more. Why not schedule the time this week to pray together, thanking God for each other? Using this list as a guide to help you, thank God for the special gift He has given each and every one of us. Ask him to keep working in your lives, making you the husband, father or wife, mother that he wants you to be so that your kids, friends and neighbors might see the gospel being lived out in front of their eyes.
