Women Energized by Grace ...Continued from page 10

The classic book on Christian marriage by Ed Wheat summarized the marriage God wants us to have in 4 rules to be followed contained in the acronym BEST. For the best marriage possible live God’s way by a series of small choices: Blessings, Edifying, Sharing, Touching. Wheat defines these areas as:

• Blessing: means to speak well of your husband or wife, show kindness towards them, express gratitude and thankfulness for all they do, and pray for God’s richest blessings upon them.
• Edifying: means to build them up. A husband does this by praying his wife; and the wife does this by seeking to respond in a positive way towards her husband.
• Sharing: means always looking for how to do things together like?listening to each other, admiring each others accomplishments, learning more about each other’s likes and dislikes, investigating ways to please each other, and finally reporting on your day to each other so they share your life.
• Touching: means to just like to be as close to the one you love as is physically possible. Either remember what you were like when you were dating your wife, or notice some young couple headed towards marriage. They intentionally just can’t stay apart, they laugh, talk, look at each other, hold hands ever moment possible, sit as close together as possible, and so on. At that stage they can face any problem and go on because they are so strengthened by the warmth and depth of their love.

God commands us in Proverbs to be intoxicated by the love of our partner (Proverbs 5:18-19). If you are married and not intoxicated by the love of your partner--you are missing the best marriage possible.

Go back and by God’s grace rekindle the blessing, edifying, sharing, and touching that always builds a strong, close, encouraging partnership for life. Be a beacon of Christ's love reflecting to an empty and hopeless world that true love is possible and can be shared for as long as you live.

The greatest priority in a home should be love. If a wife loved her husband and her children, she was well on the way to making the marriage and the home a success. In our Western society, a man and a woman fall in love and then get married; but in the East, marriages were less romantic. Often the two got married and then had to learn to love each other. (Eph. 5:18–33 is probably the best Scripture for a husband and wife who really want to love each other in the will of God.)

Godly women Living as a Priest for God; with Guarded Tongues; and No Excesses; with Visible Integrity; as Earnest Mentors of-- Wives who are their Husbands Best Friend.