Do You Care About Your Marriage Too Much?

This might seem like an odd post for a guy who has focused on marriage ministry, but it’s possible to care too much about our marriages to the detriment of our spiritual enjoyment. The healthiest marriages aren’t lived by those who obsess over them. Marriages need space to breathe, and even more importantly, spiritual light to flourish. Jesus warns us about letting the "worries of life" crowd out our determination to seek first His Kingdom (not our own), so this is actually a post I think I should probably run once a year... Let's see if you agree. 

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Have you ever known someone who cares about their physical health so much they forget to enjoy life?

Everything they eat and put on their bodies (soap, toothpaste, shampoo, sunscreen) has to be approved by the right magazines and “authoritative” organic websites. More than they fear sin, they fear parabens and sodium laurel sulfate in their cosmetics and trans fats and high fructose corn syrup in their foods.

But you wonder, does their soul suffer from all the stress and worry over their physical health? I heard a guy determined to resist the weekly advice about what new food was taking years off our lives tell me, “If eating tortilla chips takes a year off my life, I’m good with that. I’d rather live 80 years with tortilla chips than 81 years without them.”

Admittedly, most of us fall way too far into the other camp—not giving enough thought about what we eat or put on our bodies. Physical health is of some value, which is why I am grateful for a wife who challenges me in this area—but godliness has value for all things (c.f. 1 Timothy 4:8).