Day Eleven: A Vibrant Marriage
Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, –Proverbs 5:18
Notice that this text does not say rejoice in your young wife. Instead the biblical writer is calling the wise to consistently look at their spouse with youthful eyes. This is not a call to find the fountain of youth but to pursue a vibrant marriage. When we choose to look at our spouses with the eyes of young love it changes things. I appreciate Ray Ortlund’s reflection on this passage:
Remember how you used to laugh and have fun, because you so liked each other? You can have that again. Go back there. Yes, so much in life has changed. You both have seen trouble and sorrow, maybe more than you ever dreamed you would. But you still have her, and she counts for more than all the troubles in the world. Look at her. Look closely. Notice how much about her has not changed. Dwell on that. Think about her faithfulness to you through the years, despite your weaknesses and failings, through the many hardships, all by the grace of God. Meditate on the divine mercy she represents to you. Let your heart melt again, and rejoice in God and in her.
This particular text and Ortlund’s reflections are centered on the husband. But the verse extends to wives as well. Let us continually work to keep our marriages vibrant and young—even into old age.
Father, we thank you for our marriage. Help our marriage to stay young even as it deepens with old age. You have given us one another as a precious gift. We are satisfied in one another. Give us the grace to see things as they rightly are. Help us to enjoy the spouse of our youth.
