77 ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER

Some mates believe they have certain rights and entitlements in marriage. The best place to dump your imagined rights isn’t on your spouse; it’s at the foot of the cross. Try this: If we have any indisputable rights in marriage, they are as follows. Say to your mate:

The Marriage Bill of Rights

I have the right to encourage you daily.

I have the right to build you up, not tear you down.

I have the right to affirm you every time you succeed.

I have the right to encourage you every time you win or lose.

I have the right to comfort you when you hurt.

I have the right to protect you when you are attacked.

I have right to pray for you without ceasing.

I have the right to defend you from every weapon formed against you.

I have the right to esteem and honor you.

I have the right to pick you up when you fall.

I have the right to speak life to you.

I have the right to love you unconditionally.

I have the right to respect you in front of others.

I have the right to find out your needs and meet them and to diagnose your hurts and heal them.

I have the right to serve you at any time.

I have the right to ask God to give you wisdom.

I have the right to bless you.

So encourage each other to build each other up, just as you are already doing.

1 Thess. 5:11 TLB

Postscript

These truths have not been placed in any strategic or significant order. You and your spouse will need to prioritize them according to where your marriage relationship is right now.

We simply want to leave you with this thought. Marriage is for life. Marriage is a covenant so important to God that He created it first and likened His relationship with us to marriage.

Read the Song of Songs together. Enjoy the beautiful intimacy that the Word imparts to marriage. Pass this book on to your children and friends. Find ways to strengthen your marriage. Most of all, pray. Remember that prayer is the language of spiritual intimacy in marriage.

Father God, thank you for the spouses reading this book. Bring blessing, wholeness, restoration and healing to every marriage. In Jesus’ name, Amen.