Getting out of my way

Romans 12:3 tells us “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”

There have been many times in the past few weeks where I have thought more highly of myself than I ought. I do a lot of things around the house; I won’t enumerate. Sometimes in the midst of one of these tasks I’ll think to myself of how I keep this house running. I start to feel like I am pulling more than my weight around here. But as soon as I do, I am reminded of how much C does. I recently remembered how an old Sunday school teacher told us that marriage isn’t 50-50...it’s 100-100. If I focus on doing “my fifty percent” then I’ll become bitter that C isn’t doing “her fifty,” when in reality she does more than her fair share. But if I understand that I am responsible for all of the things in my life, then I will notice there is quite a bit of overlap. That shows you how selfish man can be and how quickly selfishness can destroy a marriage. It also shows how a spiritual gift/love language can become distorted. When I focus on the things I’m doing instead of who I’m doing them for, I begin to resent the person I’m doing it for. And it’s not as though I’m even focusing on the right person that I should be doing these acts for. I shouldn’t focus on doing things for C, but for the glory of God, as Colossians 3:23, 24 say “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

So I need to remember Who I am doing these things for and to take care of my gift. If I don’t use it properly, it will begin to atrophy, and then it will be of no use.