My God is Your God--So Be Good!

My wife and I uncovered a marriage devotional that we first read together a couple of years ago, Devotions for a Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas. Two of the weekly devotions go together. The first is God's Son, Gods Daughter, and the second is The Gift of Fear. The two devotions work together with the message, remember that the person you married belongs to God. You married God's Son or God's Daughter--so treat that person accordingly. In other words--guys, if you were afraid of her father, wait until you meet her Heavenly Father. Therefore treat her well.

Regardless of what we might think of the masculine image or fearful image of God here, Gary has a point. So often I think of a personal relationship with God as being between myself and God, that I have to remember that my wife also has a personal relationship with God that she sees primarily as between herself and God. The funny thing is-same God! Therefore how I treat her affects her and so also her relationship with God, then presumably also God and finally my relationship with God. Does remembering that others in our church, at the supermarket, on the road all belong to God--the same God that I sing hymns and pray to--affect the way I treat them? I don't know that I have thought about it much, but perhaps I should.

We always pray the "Our Father," but to be honest, I think I am most tempted to think, even while praying it in the congregation, "My Father." But maybe Jesus taught us to pray in the first person plural for a reason.