RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

My wife, Tex, and I were in the infancy stage of our relationship when conflict brought us closer to one another and taught us a great lesson about marriage. It was prior to our wedding, and we were having our first major disagreement. I raised my voice in an attempt to persuade her of my position, and she wept. “Please don’t hit me.”
“What?!” I couldn’t believe she would ever think I would hurt her in any way. I felt the blood rushed to my head, and I felt dazed. I took a deep breath and rubbed her shoulder. “I would never hurt you. I’m so sorry I raised my voice. But, you must know that I would never – never hit you or do anything to harm you. I am really sorry for the way I spoke.”
We were young and so deeply in love. But, I learned a tremendous lesson about love that day: it’s much more than an emotion. A Christ-like love is always rooted in respect.
When I was a teenager, my father observed me as I began to have interests in girls, and I’ll never forget what he told me. “Always treat people of the opposite sex the way you would want your mother or sister treated.” In essence, he was telling me to look upon women with a great deal of honor and respect.
The Apostle Paul presented this truth as foundational for marriage. After encouraging Christians in Ephesus to “be filled with the Holy Spirit,” he immediately told them to sing and worship God. He then taught on family life, and the first truth he presented was the necessity of mutual respect. He wrote, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21).
Before he exhorted husbands to love their wives and wives to submit to their husbands, he charged them to “submit to one another” and to do it in the reverence of Christ. If we are going to honor Christ, then we must honor each other. Submitting to each other is respecting one another with a deep sense of humility. To submit to my wife is to esteem her – to recognize her value and understand that she completes me.
I have weaknesses and strengths, and so does she. During the past half century of marriage, I’ve learned that God often brings opposites together so that we might complete each other. We often clash at the point of weaknesses or strengths. However, if when I recognize that Tex is God’s gift to make me more like Jesus, it changes my entire attitude. It does the same for her. We respect each other for our uniqueness and are able to accept one another.
When you respect your spouse, you’re saying that God has placed this person in your life to complete you and make you a better person. Such an attitude produces a healthy acceptance of the other person’s opinion, differences, and their uniqueness. It causes us to honor them as God’s gift to help us become all that He intended.
Respecting your spouse enables you to celebrate your differences. It allows you to embrace each other’s uniqueness. It causes you to treat the other person with the greatest of care.
My dad may not have known how to express his convictions to a modern audience, but he taught me a great lesson that would be critical for my marriage long after he had departed. Treat the person you love with great honor. Esteem them. They are God’s great gift for your life. And do it in the reverence of Christ.