Earlyface

A lot of people say that they want their
marriages to be better. But, I can tell that
they don’t want it bad enough. I can tell
that their heart isn’t in it. When your
heart is in something, it is a central part
of who you are. When your heart is in
something, your feelings, your emotions,
your time, and your money are all
invested it.
When you have a heart for your
marriage, you are going to be willing to
invest all of who you are, from your time,
to your money, to your emotions,
towards making your marriage work.
If your heart is in your marriage, you will
be able to answer yes to All of the 5
questions below
1. Are you willing to invest money into
your marriage?
This past Sunday, the marriage ministry
in our church announced that they are
about to start a marriage seminar and
the cost is $150 per couple. I could see
some people squirming in their seats,
because they don’t want to attend
marriage events unless they are free or
low cost. But what’s $150….one month
of cable, 2 skipped dining out
experiences, one or two less pairs of
shoes this year? How much money are
you willing to invest into making sure
you have the tools that you need to
make your marriage succeed?
If you are seriously strapped for cash,
and just don’t have any extra money,
then this does not apply to you. My point
here is that people spend money on
what they want to spend money on…
and they “find” the cash to do a lot of
things that they want to do. But when it
comes to their marriage, they are not
willing shell out the cash for the most
critical investment of all.
2. Are you respectful to your spouse?
If you are harboring ill feelings and
thoughts for your spouse, it’s going to
be reflected in what you say. You can tell
what’s in a person’s heart by what
comes out of their mouth. I can tell if a
person’s heart is in their marriage by
just listening to them. Are they speaking
ill of their spouse and/or marriage. Or
better yet, are they speaking about their
spouse at all.
3. Are you giving your spouse prime
time?
Again, you can tell what’s in a person’s
heart by how they’re spending their
time. Your spouse deserves prime time/
top billing and nothing less. Outside of
your work and fulfilling your
responsibilities, are you making your
spouse and family a priority in your life?
4. Are you willing to sacrifice for your
marriage?
One of the keys to a good marriage is
being able to put your spouse’s needs
before your own. You are not going to
be able to get your way all of the time in
your marriage. There are going to be
times that you will have to sacrifice for
the good of the marriage. And mostly,
it’s going to be making the very small
sacrifices on a daily basis like: what you
want to watch on TV or what you want
to eat for dinner that night…because
you want to make your spouse happy.
But there are other times where you
might have to make major sacrifices for
the sake of your marriage. And that’s
when you really find out if your heart is
in it. Would you be willing to give up a
job and move to another state for your
spouse? What about giving up a friend
or a family member that is not a good
influence on your marriage?
5. Are you willing to go the extra mile for
your marriage?
Sometimes, you are going to have to “go
all out” for your marriage. If your
marriage is in trouble, are you going to
be willing to do whatever it takes to fix
it? This means, if you try one thing and it
does not work, then try something else.
It means, if you have to humble yourself
to rebuild trust, then you do it. It means
if you have to put in extra work to
support your family, then you do it.
When you characterize a person as
having “heart,” it’s because that person
is going all out. You would never say:
“Wow…that person has heart,” about
someone that is not putting their all into
something. Do you have heart for your
marriage?