Serving your partner with everything you've got is the ideal and worth trying to achieve. If you're not sure how important service can be in your marriage, just ask your partner once a day: What can I do for you today to help you feel loved? They'll probably have an answer.
 |
| http://www.themissionofmoms.com/2011/04/encourage-your-missionary-son-or.html?m=1 |
#LDSface2face with Elder Holland
At a recent devotional a leader, Elder Holland, suggested taking this scripture passage which is about missionary work and change it to being about marriage. I think it's a good fit. Let's check:
"Therefore, O ye that embark in ...marriage..., see that ye serve...your spouse... with all your heart, might, mind and strength.
And faith, hope, charity and love; qualify him for this...marriage.
Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.
...When you don't know how to work with your spouse...Pray.
--Doctrine and Covenants Section 4
Well, I'd say it works. Patience and humility are huge factors in a successful marriage. After all we want them to be patient when we aren't at our best. We also hope that they'll be humble when we want them to change something so we should be humble too. Knowledge as a virtue for a good marriage is taking me a minute to put my finger on. It would be helpful for each person to learn new things each day, so that there's something new to talk about together. It's certainly helpful to learn new things to make daily living skills easier(house cleaning, cooking, organizing, child raising etc). Temperance(I had to look it up), is restraining from alcohol or eating and drinking too much. So, temperance would make you healthier and more attractive. Everybody wants that for their spouse. Diligence just reminds me to keep at it. Doing one day of any of these character traits is nice, but it won't make a huge difference in the end. Working on these character traits consistently will be rewarding for your marriage. Virtue is a must for a marriage to work - what's the point of a marriage without virtue and staying faithful to each other physically?
Do you think it works as a scripture that's helpful for marriage?
