Recovering - Colossians 3

Rules:

Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.

When I was re-entering into relationship with Christ after my college and young adult years…I was married had two small kids…and I was a recovering douchebag…..still am probably. It’s like being an alcoholic….you never fully recover. You have to fight the tendencies all the time.

My spiritual mentor at the time….always wanted to know how my relationship with my wife was. His favorite thing to ask me….in front of her…was;
“are you treating Jenny like crystal?” …..and I always answered “who is Crystal?”. But at breakfast or coffee or whatever…he always wanted to know how things were at home, was I loving her, like Christ loved the church, was there any tension or strife.
One time, after I told them there was….he and his wife came to our home….and talked us through it.

There are tons of unhappy marriages both in and outside the church…but in a committed Christian relationship where the husband and wife are both faithfully committed to daily scripture reading…the statistics fall to almost nothing. I think it is because we are learning to actually love each other the way God intended.

a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth
He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD.
Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the LORD.
Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.
A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day;
A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.
In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

But the one verse that was most convicting to me is;
For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. (and by the way....willing to lay his life down for)
Christ, as we have been reading and hearing in the beatitudes, is under control (meek) and loving. Christ is the head of the church, but not in a dictatorial manner….and if we find ourselves RULING our wives, then we aren’t loving like Christ loved.
How did Christ love?
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Sound familiar?