Love Celebrates Godliness

Bernie:

Today I noticed one of my children doing chores around the house with a happy heart! This child isn’t characterized this way and it blessed me to see him having fun cleaning our home. He even said, “Is there anything else I can do for you, Mom?” Man, how exciting and beautiful that was to see and hear! It was beautiful because he obeyed and didn’t gripe and complain. It was exciting because he was discovering God’s hidden joy through serving others. I made sure to tell him how that blessed me.

Today’s Love Dare of celebrating godliness challenges me to notice and encourage the godly behaviors and efforts in my spouse. I want to speak specifically to the husbands.
One day each of us will stand alone before God and the first thing He will call us to give an account for is how we treated our wives, how beautiful we made them. (A side note: Being right in an argument with your wife is over-rated. Driving her into the ground with your tone of voice or words to prove you’re right isn’t making her beautiful.) Today’s challenge does help us to ascribe value, encouragement and strength to our wives by complimenting their godly behaviors and efforts.

I have to remind myself to speak up and thank my wife for things I see and am grateful for. I tend to take things for granted. There are the “spiritual” things like praying, reading the Bible…but what about being responsible, being on time, ensuring I come home to a clean house, choosing her words carefully to honor me when talking to a girlfriend about our disagreement, correcting a child with calmness instead of anger, biting her tongue in the heat of an argument, forgiving me. The list of godly behaviors we can thank and encourage our wives in goes on and on.

Celebrating godliness…For me this has to include a thankful heart before God, thanking my wife directly and sometimes bragging on her before others. Of course, some celebrating demands some sort of reward!

Lisa:

I believe the word “godliness” is rather intimidating to a lot of people. At one time I viewed it as a state of near-perfection, unrealistic in its standards and not even attractive to others. I had a wrong perspective of what godliness is all about. Look at Jesus. People crowded about Him all the time, longing for a glimpse or a touch. Something about Him drew them to him. Yes, He had compassion and love, but also passion and godliness. His godliness did not reject people – it separated them from their sin so that the person felt accepted while the sinful action was condemned.

I don’t know how many times I’ve started the day with a time of Bible reading and prayer, dedicating my time and efforts to God, then gone through the day no differently than any of my neighbors would. If I want to be godly in character, I need Jesus to live His life through me. It’s real, it’s attractive, and it’s powerful. When I see my husband displaying godliness, it is attractive to me. It encourages me to do the same. Our kids see it and embrace it as part of who they are. It’s not about trying to be good in God’s (and people’s) eyes; it’s about knowing who we are in Jesus – righteous, clean, godly. It makes me want to encourage Bernie to continue in his quest to know Him more deeply. Contrary to the world’s opinion, as we move closer to God and become more like Him, we don’t distance ourselves from others. Instead, we have His heart to reach out to those in need and draw them to the One who heals, loves, accepts, and forgives. Godliness is a beautiful thing.

-Bernie and Lisa Oeschsli