I can still remember opening all of the wedding gifts my beautiful wife and I received after we first got married. They ranged anywhere from a “sweet” vacuum, a nice new set of silverware and a lot of towels.
These gifts aren’t meant to be like what you receive on your birthday, but they do come in handy. We made the best of it all and continued to open.
Toward the end of the pile, I opened up a smaller gift. It was a couple’s marriage devotional. The title of it was Night Light. I believe you can still pick this one up and I’d highly recommend it.
My new wife and I gave it a quick browse, smiled, and added it to the pile of other stuff. The problem was that most of the stuff was just, well stuff, but that little devotional was a great tool that we had no idea we needed. We were about to learn the hard way…
Let’s move forward four years, when our marriage was on the rocks. I’ll be honest; we were on the brink of divorce. Years of not communicating well, not working together and keeping God on the back burner took its toll.
We had stashed the little devotional I mentioned earlier away somewhere. We only made it through a few of the chapters. We thought we were above all that Jesus stuff. We were wrong.
Fast-forward to present day and my wife and I are doing much better. Through the help of close friends and our pastors, we were able to give our marriage over to Christ and re-build our marriage. We are now going through the “Love and Respect” devotional. We try to do it at least once a week.
We don’t always accomplish it week to week, but we never let it go too long without doing it. This simple tool has made a huge impact in our marriage and it can impact your marriage as well. Not sure? Doesn’t sound manly enough for you husbands out there? Let’s dig in…
Here are 5 advantages to doing devotions with your spouse:
1. It keeps God at the center. It’s simple, when each spouse is seeking to keep Christ at the center of themselves, it will ultimately keep Christ at the center of their marriage. As husbands, it is our responsibility to make sure we are keeping Christ first in our lives. Personally, I have to make sure I am seeking him in my daily work activities, my daily family activities and when I am alone. One of those activities is engaging in weekly or even daily devotions with your wife. It is a wonderful way to keep your marriage strong and keep Christ firmly planted at the center.
Doing devotions is a great way to keep Christ at the center of your marriage.
2. It brings you closer as a couple. When was the last time you and your spouse really sat down and had a quality conversation? I hope it was recently and helped you grow as a couple. Doing a devotional requires set aside and focused time. Doing a devotional will bring you closer as a couple because you are both engaging in something together. You both need to listen, focus and in some cases answer questions at the end. Television, games and even nice dinners can’t provide this type of closeness.
Devotionals will keep you close to your spouse in a loving and quality way.
3. It allows you to discuss new marriage topics and questions. “Hey honey, what could I do to improve our marriage?” Do you remember the last time your spouse came up to you and asked a question like that? Chances are, those type of in-depth questions are never asked, and they are exactly the ones we need to be asking! Doing a weekly or daily devotion with your spouse will bring up these kind of important questions, offer advice on how to act on these questions and allow for opportunities for each spouse to answer the questions. You’ll be amazed at how much these questions could change and improve your marriage.
Devotionals are a perfect way to ask those hard but necessary questions.
4. It allows for prayer together. As a husband, even a Christian husband, I can admit that praying with my wife can be very difficult. Not because I avoid it, but because we have an enemy who does everything he can to make prayer strange and awkward. The advantage to doing devotions is that it will allow for the perfect opportunity to pray with and for your spouse. Even if it’s short and to the point, God will use it to build a new closeness and trust between the two of you. Not sure what to pray about, just pray using the topic that was discussed in the devotion.
Devotionals are the perfect way to open up your marriage for prayer.
5. Quality Time. Doing a devotional with your spouse is about genuine quality time. It’s a great time to decompress from the day, forget about work or the kids and focus on God and your marriage. Life, most of the time, is hectic and busy, and devotions are a great way to relax and unwind with the one you love the most. Step up this week and establish a time of devotions with your spouse.
Devotionals are a great way to spend quality time with God and your spouse.
What are you waiting for? Get your devotional this week and start building a stronger marriage. Please share some advantages you have experienced by having a time of devotions with your spouse.
Manturity is a blog built on establishing spiritual maturity in today’s man. The goal is to assist men in building better marriages and help them in grow in maturity and explore different aspects of manhood. Manturity.com features new weekly blog posts, daily social media updates and a powerful resources page. Stay up to date with the Manturity blog communities on Facebook and Twitter.
For the original article, visit manturity.com.
Joseph Mattera 
BJ Foster 
Shelby Bowen 
