Setting Priorities Straight: A Responsibility of Marriage
/STEPHANIE FRIES
Through the sacrament of marriage, each spouse is empowered with grace and commissioned to love beyond comfort.
Husbands and wives not only receive the gift of marriage, but also the responsibility of marriage. A responsibility to uphold your spouse, and your marriage, as the top priority in your life.
PHOTOGRAPHY: JOY-MARIE MENDOZA PHOTOGRAPHY
In so many facets of our lives, we are pressured to believe that everything should be ‘the most important thing.’ In the workforce, we work long hours and bring work home—literally or emotionally. In the social setting, we overcommit our schedule and strive to keep up with the latest trends. Even at church, we can be pulled in many directions.
A vocation to marriage helps us simplify our priorities by defining the most important things: God, spouse, children, and everything else. In that order.
We are filled by the love of God in order to pour love into the lives of others. I’ve heard of an image of an overflowing glass to help visualize this truth.
Imagine yourself as an empty glass. You receive the love of God which fills you to the brim. But God’s love, mercy and grace is infinite; so as you continue to receive the love of God beyond your fill, the overflowing contents spill from your capacity to others’ lives. Through our vocation, we are called to pour into our spouses first—and always.
The beautiful and serious thing about this responsibility is that no one can do it for you and no one can do it as well as you.
God has journeyed alongside you into this vocation. From the single years, through dating and engagement, and beyond the exchange of vows, he has been by your side. When a heart is receptive to his grace, God provides the strength and wisdom to make sacrifices for love.
Satan is attacking marriages and families; Saint John Paul II says, “as the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.” We are berated by the devil’s temptation to choose anything over God and family, because the conditions of our world mirror the conditions in our families.
Because the threat of temptation is so real, the call to prioritize your marriage is even more important. You are called to love God, love yourself, and love your spouse in good times and in bad. You have vowed to say “yes” to love in sickness and in health. You are empowered to be the best version of yourself and bring out the best of your spouse all the days of your lives.
Choosing your spouse and making them a priority is oftentimes a sacrifice. And choosing your spouse each day is a gift, an act of faith and love.
