Today’s gospel (Luke 6:27-38) talks about lending without expecting anything in return. This made me think about some advice that I was given shortly before I married my wife.
I was told that in marriage you need to “forget how to count”. That doesn’t mean if you are at the grocery store to get 5 apples you come back with 4 or 6. What it means is that you should never count the things that you do for your spouse or the things they do for you. Rather, you should always act as though you owe them one, like they just did something huge for you. If you get an opportunity to do something for your spouse, you should jump at the chance to treat this person whom you love. It prevents you from thinking that your spouse owes you something. These gestures help build the love you have for one another as well as the appreciation you have for your spouse when they return acts of kindness. In our society there is a lot of selfishness. The attitude of “what have you done for me” or “the world owes me one” leads to people demand that others do things for them as opposed to them helping others. Not counting means that you don’t think that your spouse owes you something rather that you owe them.
This advice has paid great dividends for us in our marriage as we strive to serve each other in the most loving way we can. When we can help without expecting something in return we can truly live as Jesus calls us to in the Gospel today.
And now I’m back to my mission…
No comments:
Post a Comment