Newlywed secrets from the Old Testament (Part II)

one of our wedding photos, by Fyrefly Photography

Yesterday I posted an excerpt from an article on your first year of marriage from Focus on the Family that looks at the instruction in Deutoronomy 24:5 for men to spend this first year at home with their wives.

Michael and I have been married for just over half of a year now, and though we never intentionally went about taking this verse to heart, many of our decisions involving time and commitments have ended up reflecting these ideas of being intentional during this crucial, rooting period in our marriage.

We discussed making each other our first priority, only second to God. We talked about our expectations, things like making sure to eat one meal together each night or going on a weekly date together. We began looking at these kinds of decisions about the time we’d spend apart as soon as we were engaged, especially in light of the fact that within our first month of marriage, we’d be moving across the country, from Michigan to Atlanta, a new city and state where I knew no one but him.

So, as it would turn out, it was Michael who ended up making much of the sacrifices to guard our marriage this first year, just as Deuteronomy had suggested centuries ago. Michael had been involved in multiple Bible studies and cut back to focus on the one group he felt was most important (leading his small group). He had to figure out how to juggle his school schedule with work and homework and studying so that during the evenings we could spend the most amount of time together. And sometimes, if I’m feeling lonely and he can tell, he’ll push it all aside and say, “Let’s go do something fun and hang out together. I can do this later. You come first.”

I just love when I’m able to look at something God’s already doing in my life and then find confirmation of it in the Bible like this. I find it really encouraging to know that despite our lack of knowledge about God’s Word, he still imparts it to us, even when we’re not aware of it at all.

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