To give of yourself is a short and simple concept. The action part is far more difficult.  We live in such a self and stuff oriented world. 

The world pushes bigger, better, more of this and more of that, to such an extreme the storage industry is a billions dollar business. 

Since 2014, the self storage options industry has grown each year for the past three years just over 1 billion dollars. It is estimated to make just over 32 billion dollars in the year 2016. 

Self storage stat link  

Where do we look to get help and what must we sacrifice to get to where we are supposed to be?

As the groom to my bride, I am to be a servant leader. Sacrifice as Christ has sacrificed, to the love and strength of our marriage and the glory and honor of God. 

God wants us to look to Him for our help. As soon as we loose sight of that, we become dependent on ourselves and things and that’s when life starts to go immensely wrong.

I’m not saying that having stuff is bad, or doing things for yourself is bad, but it depends on the condition of your heart when that time comes. 

As Jesus loves His Church, that is how I am to love my bride. He died for His Church literally. So that is the example I have to follow.  If called to, I must be willing and want to die for her. If not literally, physically, then I must crush my selfishness daily. I must choose my battles and pick my wars. I must pray before I speak. Pray before I act. Listen to Jesus and watch Jesus for what He says and what He does.

I don’t always do this, but it is the goal in the midst of my broken selfish life.

That being said, I must learn even more to be a servant leader.  To be self sacrificing does not mean to give up the leadership role in the home. I am responsible for the spiritual atmosphere of my home. If the spiritual atmosphere is not right, most of the time it’s because I am not right.

Now before we go further, please know and understand that we need to go back to His grace. Because it is not by works we are saved, but by grace through our faith. Also, however, faith without works is dead. I seek the fruits of the Holy Spirit as listed in Scripture, Galatians 5.

Grace. It all comes down to grace. Jesus’s daily gift of grace to me. My needing to pay forward that grace to my bride. To forgo the brokenness of our lives as individuals, and as bride and groom, and simply love. First Corinthians 13 speaks about love and how important it is.

It’s important to say that we do have disagreements and conversations as we work through differences.  This is a normal part of our life and relationship. But we always try and filter it through grace and love. When the filter is clogged with stuff, and we lack grace, there is almost always forgiveness that is asked for.

I like this song:  

Give me Jesus

Before we got married my bride and I discussed who comes first in our individual lives and it’s Jesus. We are next in line to Him. All else comes after; children, family, add yours from here.