Charity

I’ve mentioned several times before the book “Drawing Heaven into your Marriage” by Dr. H. Wallace Goddard. Throughout his book he discusses different principles that bring a spiritual strength to marriages. Some of these are obedience, sacrifice, repentance, humility, and faith. The last principle he shares ties all of these together for me: charity.

Those with a spiritual background will know that charity is considered the pure love of Christ. However, you don’t have to necessarily believe in Christ to have charity. The idea of Christ’s love is that it is unconditional. It’s not dependent of certain actions or reactions. It can’t be bought, earned, or lost. Dr. Goddard quotes Marvin J. Ashton when he defines charity. “Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down.” All these aspects of charity are vital to having a happy and successful marriage. There will definitely be times when we must choose to give our spouse the benefit of the doubt. We will need to look over and accept our spouse’s weaknesses. When we allow our love for our spouse to outweigh the bumps and bruises in our relationships, we bring an added strength to our marriage that can’t be found anywhere else.

I’ve been able to feel of this love more completely this past week. My husband and I have welcomed into our family and home our first child. 

It’s incredible how completely he trusts us and how dependent on us he is for everything. He has many shortcomings – he spits up, loves to be awake at night, etc – but I don’t think I could love him more if I tried. The love I have for my son is not diminished by each messy diaper. I love him and will always love him no matter what. That is the kind of love that we should have for everyone – especially our best friend that we have promised to love, come what may.  

Resources ~

Goddard, H. W. (2007). Drawing heaven into your marriage:Powerful principles with eternal results. Fiarfax, VA: Meridian Publishing.