Bare, We Bear the Bear

"Benevolence" by Jessa

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2).

I’ll be the first one to tell you that humility is my finest quality. It’s easy and natural for me to be meek, to remain quiet about my greatness (because, after all, it is so overwhelmingly obvious—there is no need to vocalize it).

And gentleness and patience? Please! You won’t see me overreact. I’m like a ship sliding through a smooth ocean breeze. Nothing rocks my boat. Just ask my husband. If he says otherwise, he’ll have to answer to me.

But humility—that’s my best characteristic.

So, really, the hardest part about being married is being married to an imperfect person. Since I’ve got it all down, he’s really just weighing me down. But that’s my lot to bear, because I do love him.

And what is this marriage love?

It’s not about finding a perfect spouse (because that’s not going to happen, since my husband is the only one who has); it’s about finding someone whose imperfections you can tolerate.

For. The. Rest. Of. Your. Life.

Bearing the bear, forever.

And how do you do that? I’ll pull my tongue out of my cheek and quote some scripture.

Step one to love is becoming bare. Step two is to keep loving. Christ knows exactly what we are, and He died for us, full of that knowledge (Romans 5:8). And His love is unstoppable by anything here, hereafter; of earth, of heaven; of any range of power—nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8: 37–39), which is to be an example of marital love (Ephesians 5:25), though Christ (perfect) and His church (imperfect) are imbalanced compared to man (imperfect) and wife (imperfect).

We all fall short of God’s glory, but He still gives us grace (Romans 3:23). And our spouses will sometimes delight and sometimes disappoint us, but with humility, gentleness, and patience, we can continue on “bearing one another in love.”

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