Clark and Mary were in love. Clark proposed marriage, and Mary accepted. But it wasn’t as simple as that. Clark knew that to have a happy and harmonious marriage, he needed to win the approval of Mary’s parents, Clarence and Goldie—especially Goldie. He’d heard how mothers-in-law could be, you know, a little difficult. He braced himself and hoped for the best.
“You realize that a marriage is supposed to be 50-50, don’t you?” Goldie tested Clark.
“Not ours,” Clark answered without a moment’s hesitation. “Ours is going to be 60-60!”
And so it was.
That’s the true story of how one happy home began—a home I was fortunate to become a part of a few years later. It’s a simple story, but it contains an important truth: Successful marriages and happy homes (or any successful relationships, for that matter) are built on little daily deeds of loving self-sacrifice, where each person is willing to give that extra 10% without keeping track of whose turn it is. Don’t you love it when people are that way with you?
But where do you get that kind of love that will help you and your loved ones through whatever ups and downs, challenges, and disappointments the years may bring your way? It comes from the source of all good things, God Himself. And it’s yours for the asking. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.”1
- James 1:17; 1 Timothy 6:17↑