The Marriage Sacrifice

In the book entitled Drawing Heaven into your Marriage, by H. Wallace Goddard, it says: “Marriage provides glorious opportunities to practice consecration. Just as Isaac was willing to give his life as the ultimate expression of commitment to God, so we are invited to dedicate our lives, our talents, our weekend, and our weaknesses to the sacred enterprise of sanctifying our marriages and ultimately perfecting our souls” (Goddard, 2009, p. 103).

I love this quote because it provides an insight into marriage that I never considered before. I will admit that although I knew that marriage requires selfish sacrifices and that it is a commandment from God, I married for partially selfish reasons. I was in love with a worthy young man who also happened to love me. He was my best friend and I wanted to spend eternity with him. I don’t think that this is a bad reason to get married but the quote above helped me to understand that there is more to marriage than first meets the eye. We get married to dedicate so much of ourselves to another imperfect person so that we together can help each other become perfect. Reaching perfection won’t happen in this lifetime, but it is an ongoing process.

I would now like to point out each thing that we are invited to dedicate to our spouse in a marriage one by one and touch on each of them briefly.

“…we are invited to dedicate our lives, our talents, our weekend, and our weaknesses to the sacred enterprise of sanctifying our marriages and ultimately perfecting our souls” (Goddard, 2009, p. 103).

1.     Our Lives

When you get married your life is no longer your own. You are not just living for yourself anymore but someone else as well. There is now another person’s schedule, ideas, fears and dreams to think about. Beyond the day-to-day life you now share, you are married to this person till death or if married in the temple, for eternity. You grow up together, grow old together and deal with everything in between together. You are still two separate beings, but your union makes you one. I can think of no greater or sweeter sacrifice than dedicating your life to another person.

2.    Our Talents

Dedicating your talents to your spouse is a beautiful thing. Not only can you share your God-given talents to lift one another up, but also discover new talents together. I play the violin but I haven’t played in a long time so I do not yet feel comfortable playing in front of anyone other than my husband. I know that he enjoys hearing me play and if that talent that I have only blesses him than I am happy.

3.    Our Weekend

     Weekends have always been something to look forward too. After a long week, weekends are a chance to relax, go out and have fun and get the things done that was missed throughout the week. Spending quality time with my husband is something that I hold very near and dear to my heart. I now look forward even more to the weekend because it means that I get to spend more time with my husband.

4.     Our weakness

Sharing our weakness with someone might not seem like the ideal thing. It is human nature to want to hide our weaknesses from others. However, we can love our spouse despite their weaknesses. We can help them turn them into strengths and to love them unconditionally.

I know without a doubt, that marriage is so important. It is a commandment from God and it provides wonderful opportunities to truly and completely dedicate our lives, talents, weekends and weaknesses to our spouse.