He who heeds the Word wisely will find good. (Proverbs 16:20)

It has been said that there are three rings in marriage: the engagement ring, the wedding ring, and the suffering. Many of us become disillusioned when we encounter the difficulties and problems inherent in married life. When we hurt, many of us tend to believe that something is horribly wrong with our marriage.

But it is just the opposite. By its very nature marriage is difficult, and facing those difficulties is often painful. Yet we can learn from the pain if we allow ourselves to.

We have difficulties in many areas of our marriage. One of those areas is selfishness. Over the years we hurt our spouse many times through our lack of attention to their needs. The Lord begins to get our attention about our selfishness. Through His Word, He impresses us that we have to do nothing out of selfishness, but to consider our spouse more important than ourselves.

We all still struggle over our selfishness, but as we pay attention to and obey God’s Word, our selfishness decreases. This can only happen as we accept difficulties as one of God’s ways of teaching us.

Q. What difficulties in your marriage might God be using to teach you right now?

PRAYER: God, help me to face my marital difficulties and accept them as tools You use to teach me. Amen.