Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. - Romans 12:15
Marriage is about being with each other, hand-in-hand, through all of life's highs and lows. When one experiences something, so does the other. Our lives are as one.
When we start out on our journey together as man and wife, the first few years often times are filled with a lot of celebration! We rejoice when we fall in love, when we get engaged, the wedding is a joyous affair, and then comes the other beautiful life milestones like growing your careers, buying a home, or meeting your children. The early year’s joyful celebration can feel easy and abundant. There is just so much to look forward to together.
Then comes the middle. The middle is where you grow together, you learn about each other in new ways, and life gets kinda crazy. This is when we need to remember to press pause and still take time to celebrate your love, life, and all the gifts God has given you.
Celebrate the fact you made it through the sleepless baby years, that you’ve settled into a house in which you can grow old together. Rejoice in the knowledge you’ve found your groove at work, but more than anything, remember to take the time to celebrate your wins, whatever they may be. We can easily take for granted how far we’ve come and even breeze past our hard-fought victories as couples.
Deuteronomy 6:12 was a reminder to the Israelites to be careful not to forget how God so miraculously delivered them from their slavery. As an outsider looking back at the miraculous ways God showed up for the Israelites, it can be easy to wonder how the so easily strayed from God’s commandments. They so quickly forget how amazingly capable is the God they serve!
But if we are honest, how often do we behave in the same ways they did? Forgetting how God parted our own seas in our lives. Skipping right past prayed over wins and chalking them up to “luck” or “hard work.” No! God is our provider! We need to give him the glory. Pausing to rejoice in what He has down with our spouse and our marriage is one great way to thank God for the good gifts He’s given you!
Do any of these situations sound familiar? God opens the door to our dream job, but soon after, we start to grumble about it. God gives us someone to love for a lifetime and ten years in, we wonder how we ended up together. We so easily forget God has put us in our specific circumstances for a reason, often times as an answer to our very own prayers.
Celebration, pausing to rejoice, is one way to remember. That’s why God instituted things like the Passover for the Jewish people, to help them remember. It’s the reason why Christians celebrate Christmas every year, to joyfully celebrate God’s gift to us. We also need those intentional moments in our marriages, especially when they may not be as obvious to us as they once were.
So pick a date, maybe it’s your anniversary or the last weekend of the month! Whenever works for you, make it a time and place to remember together and celebrate the love and life God has given you together. Watch how pausing to celebrate one another will infuse a new level of joy into your marriage.
Amanda Idleman is a writer whose passion is to encourage others to live joyfully. She writes devotions for the Daily Bible Devotions App, she has work published with Her View from Home, also for the MOPS Blog, and is a regular contributor for Crosswalk.com. You can find out more about Amanda on her blog or follow her on Instagram.
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