Photo Credit: Simon Howden

A friend recently shared with us this quote by Josh Harris:‎

“What you see in your spiritual life today is the direct result of what you’ve put in the soil of your life in days past. The difference between the person who grows in holiness and the one who doesn’t is not a matter of personality, upbringing, or gifting; the difference is what each has planted into the soil of his or her heart and soul. So holiness isn’t a mysterious spiritual state that only an elite few can reach. It’s more than an emotion, or a resolution, or an event. Holiness is a harvest.”

This is so true and can be appropriately be applied to our marriages as well. The husband or wife who is purposing to grow in holiness is going to facilitate the growth of a healthy marriage.

Think about it – the Bible says we reap what we sow. So the question we must answer is what am I sowing today to make my marriage a holy reflection of Christ’s love for His church.

• Husband, are you loving and leading your wife in a way that glorifies God?
• Wife, are you following your husband’s lead in a respectful, God-glorifying way?

If the answer to these two questions are, ‘no,’ then, don’t be surprised in the years ahead when less than desirable fruit is produced. Marriage is a life-long commitment to do the hard work necessary in order to grow more in love with God. When we tend to the soil of our vertical relationship with Him, then our horizontal relationship grows too.

Photo Credit: happykanppy

What fruit have you reaped from your marriage so far? What fruit are you hopeful to reap in the future? What changes can you make today to insure the fruitfulness of tomorrow?