Honoring Your Spouse

The Bible speaks a lot about honor — honoring God, honoring parents, honoring authorities. And within marriage, honoring one another is a mutual calling. Today's reflection is for you: how have you been honoring your spouse?

To honor is not to agree with everything. It's treating each other with respect, not belittling in public, recognizing effort even when it falls short, speaking well of your spouse to others. Sometimes the closeness of marriage breeds a familiarity that slips into carelessness — we speak to our spouse in ways we'd never speak to a stranger. Honoring reverses that. It's choosing words that build up, giving thanks out loud, recognizing what he does well. You don't have to pretend everything is perfect — you just have to refuse to diminish the person God placed by your side.