Love, Honor and Obey

Sunday 3/30/2014 7:05 AM

When Jaci and I were married we memorized our vows and recited them to each other.  My vows were, “I, Mark, take you, Jaci, to be my wife.  And I promise before God, and all who are present here, to be your faithful husband.  I will love, honor and maintain you as long as our lives will last.  I will serve you with tenderness and respect and encourage you to develop God’s gifts in you.”  Hers were the same, with our names and the words husband and wife interchanged, except she promised to “love, honor and obey” where I promised to “love, honor and maintain.”  In 1978, the year we were married, the women’s liberation movement was in full swing and many of her friends gave her a hard time for not standing up to me and refusing to say the word obey.  Little did they know that I didn’t insist upon it; she wanted to do it.  To be honest, I was more worried about fulfilling my vow to maintain since I was uncertain about my ability to adequately provide for all of her needs.  I figured that if I did an adequate job of loving, honoring, encouraging and serving her with tenderness and respect she would have little difficulty in obeying.

This morning I read Psalm 143:8, “Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you.  Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.”  It seems that David has similar feelings about God.  He figures that if he hears about and experiences the unfailing love of God daily then obeying God and walking in the way he directs is no problem at all.

I want to live my life with that same level of trust but in order to do so I need to constantly be reminded of God’s unfailing love to me.  If I am convinced of God’s love for me it should be easy for me to obey God.  The real question is do I have the same amount of trust in God that Jaci had in me?  Am I willing to say to God, “I will love, honor and obey you as long as my life will last?”