Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.

How long will you lie there, O sluggard?  When will you arise from your sleep?

A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

When it comes to marriage, we know the things we ought to do.  We know the things we would rather not do.  And depending on how mature we are, we may or may not do the things we know we should.  We procrastinate.  We put off.  We are often lazy.  That is when it comes to doing something that isn’t very important to us.

However, we are quick to do the things we want to do.  We’ll even rearrange our schedules to be sure we can squeeze that one thing in because of one simple reason:

we.want.to.  

And because we all battle with selfishness, we’ll put a priority on our wants to the neglect of what our spouse wants or needs or worse, to the neglect of what God commands.

God knows our tendency to be lazy.  He takes it a step further and calls us “sluggards.” Somehow this sounds much more severe.  “Lazy” brings to mind a relaxing drift along the river on a hot summer day.

Photo Credit: Susan Laxson

But being “sluggardly” isn’t quite so serene.  It’s more the picture of one sleeping in the midst of a war zone.  It’s wrong.  There is danger all around, yet the urgency isn’t seen or felt.

Photo Credit: eucmh.com

So let’s resolve to be wise.  Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”  When King Solomon penned those words he was actually referring to marriage.

Let’s put our hand to the plow.  Let’s get to work doing the thing we’ve been putting off in regards to our marriage:

• Have the conversation you’ve been avoiding;
• Plan a date night to bless your spouse
• Clean the house or fix the leaking faucet
• Stop long enough to draw your spouse out about the moodiness you’ve noticed in their responses to you.
• Ask.
• Talk.
• Be purposefully diligent.

These are the moments God gives us all day after day.  They aren’t inconveniences.  They are opportunities for us to grow closer to each other and to the Lord.  But we must be alert. We must be vigilant if we are going to move beyond where we are today and grow our marriage to be strong and mature – the marriage God desires us all to have.  

Consider the ant…

Photo Credit: A Faithful Journey blog