Marriage Moment: Expectations | Great Peace Living

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I know that this post will cause some of you to go. “What!” You won’t believe that I would stand for it because you won’t understand that the topic is about something that was written in love for me and our marriahe. You may jugging-lyhink, Today I am linking up with “How can a husband do that?”

I’m talking about expectations.

Early in our marriage, and I’m sure most marriages, there was discussion about who was responsible for what. Sometimes there would be arguments which stemmed from understanding what our roles were/are.

One evening during such an argument I made a statement like, “What do you expect of me?”

What I didn’t know in that moment was that it got my husband to thinking.

It’s difficult when you are first starting out to know what to expect of each other. After all, when your first married you are in the honeymoon stage and think that marriage is all about cuddling and holding and being in love. Those things are good. But, they are not what marriage is about.

Marriage is about two people, a man and a woman, agreeing to mutually walk through life together, but with the goal of being one in mind and spirit. If you are a Christian it is about being mutually agreeable to striving in your life to live for serving God. It’s about helping each other to get to Heaven by lovingly and gently reminding each other that you serve The Living God daily. For women, it is realizing that God designed for husbands to be the spiritual leader of the home, the financial leader of the home and the protector of the home, and that He designed women to be the help-mate of the man, the keeper of the home by busily loving and caring for the husband and children.

A few days after my Beloved and I had that conversation. I came home from work one day, that was when I was working outside the home and he and I were working opposite shifts, I found a note on the table which had a list of…. wait for it…. EXPECTATIONS. I know, shocking, right? But, then I started reading it. I realized that he wrote that list with all of the love he had in his heart for me and our Father. He wrote it with tenderness and gentleness and honesty. What was shock at first quickly turned to joy, and helped to bond he and I in a mutually understandable way.

His list….

1. Love God with all your being.

2. Love me with everything you can.

3. Love OUR family!

4. Love our relatives.

5. I want us to have these goals:

Know & obey Jesus Christ
Know & display godly character

Know & love each other
Know & love our children
Know our individual gifts & abilities so that we can work in an area of strength & contribute effectively to the lives of others.

6. I would like for you to be in control of the home. You tell me and the kids (when God gives them to us) what to do to maintain and orderly home!

7. I would like for you to let me know as quickly as possible when I am doing something you don’t like!

8. I want you to remain romantic with me and maintain our “dating” life.

9. I want you to feel free to make plans with people so we are not “bored.”

10. I want you to do things that you enjoy with me and without me. I promise to do more things with you that I don’t enjoy and possibly grow to enjoy them.

11. Forgive me & Forget Things when it is necessary!

12. Please continue to encourage me to do good things for us & others.

12. Le me surprise you every once in a while. I promise it will be worthwhile!

13. I want us to decide to read & study together & separate as well as pray more often!

This list is a treasure of mine. I refer to it often. It is a work of love in progress that I hope doesn’t end. I pray through it. I remember it, I strive to let it be my example.

I don’t follow it perfectly, to my own regret. I know without doubt that it is a gentle and loving reminder from my husband of God’s purpose in our marriage. While many in society will look at this and think…. “How could any woman stay with a man who writes out expectations.” I know that God placed the husband above the woman and that he has the responsibility to lead me in right living before God.

What are your expectations in your marriage? How do you communicate them with your spouse?

Would you like to join me by adding your own Marriage Moment?