Looking at My Husband

Dear Lord,

I really enjoy looking at my husband.  It isn’t like he’s super model material, but I do appreciate the lines that You created in him.  Some of his muscles show because he has made an effort, and others simply because you made him that way.  Studying his figure reminds me that I appreciate his effort.  Yet, I would still enjoy looking at him even if he didn’t.  I think I just love looking at him because he’s mine.

You created love as a choice that, when practiced, begets those wonderful feelings that we all pursue.  I am so glad that You didn’t create it as a feeling that we can “fall into” or “fall out of.”  So many “fall into” love, and it doesn’t last because they don’t cultivate it.  Knowing that there will be times when I don’t feel like I love him make me more intentional about cultivating my love for him (ie thinking about him, dwelling on the praiseworthy things (Phil 4:8), etc.).  That knowledge also allays my fears of “falling out of” love.  It’s normal in a sinful world.  There will be times that I allow my self-love or some other idol to overcome my love of my husband.  It doesn’t have to stay that way.  Thank You that we take a much greater role in our own feelings.

I thank You, Lord, for “looking at my husband,” that it is one of the ways that I can cultivate my love for him.  To look at my husband is, for me, to think on him and on how much I love him.  I have used it often enough that I have associated those “wonderful feelings” directly with it.  It’s not nearly so hard to remember my feelings of love for him, because I have associated an action with certain thoughts that lead to those feelings.  Sometimes he’ll ask what I’m thinking when I look at him, and I can only reply that I’m twitterpated.  It isn’t that he did anything, it’s simply that I’m taking a moment to enjoy the thought of him.  It makes me smile, and I’ll often feel the warm fuzzies of infatuation.

Help me, Lord, to translate the knowledge of how my love for my husband works, to how my love for You works.  To look on You and think on You and all of Your qualities - or attributes - is to remember my love for You, and I should be intentional about doing it.  You created marriage as a reflection of Your relationship with Your church - Your children.  Help me to remember that, and to not only apply it to my personal relationship with You, but also to be mindful of how I reflect that to others.  May Your glory shine, Lord.

In Jesus’ Name, amen.