Novembers Kiss
When my husband and I first met it was in November! We fell in love, the season of giving and thankfulness was upon us. We met doing an outreach called “A Feast Fit For A King!” As we got to know each other we found we both had a heart for ministry, for serving, and for each other. We brainstormed at a local Starbucks about outreach ideas and ways to help those who were hurting. Our heart was full and so was our hands! My then boyfriend, now husband, found a song called Novembers Kiss which we still listen too and reminisce of the time we fell in love!
Large, Generous, Abundant
Bountiful has a couple meanings, large in quantity, giving generously and abundant. When I think of a heart that is bountiful, I think of a large quantity of love, giving that is generous, and living in abundance! When we think of how we fell in love we can usually remember the feelings we had that made us feel goo goo ga ga!! We lived with a bountiful supply of love!! The thought of waiting to see each other, to talk, to give each other gifts, or love notes, seemed overwhelming! We felt life was full and nothing could ever change.
Time
Where does the time go? It’s been twelve years and that giddy feeling has changed over time, it has grown, matured, and settled, but it’s not gone! When you get married, you only know an ounce of the love that can happen in your journey together. You are only living on a feeling, a moment of pleasure, joy, and excitement. It’s not the real deal until you have lost that feeling, gone through some trials, and found that real love is about commitment.
Heart
Your heart can deceive you, so make sure there is substance to the one who is to be your spouse. I know this is for marrieds, but also there are those who read this who aren’t yet married but looking. Don’t lose heart if you feel like you didn’t marry someone with substance. If you married before God, and made vows til death do you part, you will see there is always hope. People change and grow and learn to trust God not their hearts. You can have a bountiful heart in marriage if you learn to lean on God and each other.
Dependent
Being dependent on someone in this day and age is considered weak, foolish, and old fashioned. The God of the bible lets us know that we need to be dependent on Him to be abundant! When you get married, and are married for sometime, you realize being dependent isn’t a bad thing, it’s a way you become one. How can you build a marriage or become one if you are independent of each other? It doesn’t work. You have to learn to trust, to lean, to care for, to depend on your spouse.
Building Bountiful
How then do you build a bountiful heart in marriage? You do it one day at a time, one month, one year, until you have spent a lifetime building a life that is full!! How do you build anything? With planning, with a blueprint, with materials that last, with care and a forethought of completion. The same is true in marriage! Add to your faith virtue, you have to have faith to walk this walk of marriage, and add to it virtue, a life that is based on Gods moral standard.
The Lord Is Bountiful
When we follow the example of the Lord we see His character is one of large in quantity of love, one of giving generously, and one of abundance!! He exceeds even this definition!! His love for us cannot compare to our ideas and our ways of doing things. In marriage we need to follow His example and have a bountiful heart!! Give, love, do it with all you have, and live in abundance!! When we follow the word of God and his ways, we too can have abundant life!! He came for that reason. Today live in abundance!
Prayer
Our prayer for you and your marriage is that you can live with an abundant heart! Love with an abundant heart, and pray with the thought of giving generously to your spouse your all!! God will help you! This is the season of giving thanks for what and who you have! Take this month to focus on finding ways to give thanks for your spouse, to love in abundance and to live bountifully!!
Scriptures
Monday: Song of Solomon 8:6-7 says, “Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.” Remember how you felt about your spouse when you fell in love.
Tuesday: Colossians 3:14 says, “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” When you look at these descriptions of bountiful add to it this scripture! Pray today for a heart that is bountiful.
Wednesday: Psalm 90:12 says, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Time helps us to apply our hearts to wisdom in marriage as well as life. Pray God help you to count each day and use it to love your spouse with abundance.
Thursday: Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Praying today to not trust your heart but God.
Friday: Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Learn and pray to depend on God and your spouse!
Saturday: 2 Peter 1:5 says, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;” Walk in faith and add Gods moral standard.
Sunday: Psalm 116:12 says, “How can I repay unto the LORD All His bountiful dealings toward me?” Think of this, it’s large, generous and abundant. Pray to be like the Lord today toward your spouse.
Contact
Thank you for investing in your marriage and you too can have a happily ever married marriage!!
Please feel free to contact us at janene@happilyevermarried.org also you can share and post more blogs at http://happilyevermarried.org/blog/