One Plus One

I spoke recently to a man in sales who wanted to spend time with the Lord every day, but just can't seem to manage it, because of his work. He's not alone, I'm sure. Among mothers and fathers and workers everywhere, the same struggle doubtless exists. And I believe it exists primarily because of a misunderstanding.

As most of you are probably aware, I am a single woman. I have lived alone for over eight years; I have earned 100% of the household income and have done about 99% of the household work.

If I were to marry, the housecleaning, grocery shopping, and cooking load would approximately triple, assuming I married a normal man who would be about twice as messy as I am, and eat about twice as much. There would be more laundry to do, and the household expenses would definitely increase. As if that was not enough, I might not sleep quite as well-especially if he snores-and a lot of what is now my spare time would be consumed in talking to my husband. And if that was how I looked at marriage, I can assure you I would absolutely, positively, never marry.

Because, you see, that is only part of the story. The other part is that I would expect my husband to add substantially-perhaps double or more-to the household income. I would expect him to help out a lot with the house/yard work, either in person, or by paying someone else to do some of it. In fact, if I cannot reasonably expect that a prospective husband will make my life better, I won't marry him.

Unfortunately, it seems that a good many of us come into our relationship-our marriage, if you will-with the Lord looking at only the one side of it. We have to spend time with Him, meaning we have less time to rest, since we can't cut back on our working time. We have to tithe, thus decreasing our disposable income. We have to stop sinning, which means we can't have so much fun, since most of what we did for entertainment (like gossiping, etc.) is now called sin. And in exchange, we acquire the right to wear His name ("Christian") and we get forgiven for everything we did wrong before we got married.

Oh, come on! Let's turn on the light! When we commit to this relationship, He is committing to this relationship, too! If you need to hire a babysitter so you can spend time with Him, do you think He can't or won't provide the money for you to do it? If you spend an hour with Him, do you think He can't or won't increase your earnings in the time you spend working? If you tithe, do you think He can't or won't give you more than you gave to Him?

Commit your whole self to Him, and expect-yes, I said expect-that He will do His part for you.

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