Preferring the Other

Preferring the other. That small phrase hides an enormous practice. In marriage, preferring your spouse can mean simple things: choosing the restaurant he likes, giving up the remote control, letting him rest on the weekend without giving him a judgmental look. But it can also mean bigger things: putting him before your need to be right, before your need to be admired, before your impulse to complain. Love that prefers the other isn't love that erases itself. It's mature love, love that knows giving way on certain things doesn't diminish you — it makes you greater. Paul writes this to the church, but it starts at home. Marriage is the laboratory where love is practiced. And every small choice to prefer the other is a brick in the building of true partnership.