THIS IS THE ONLY TIME WE HAVE

Cherish the Gift While God Has Given It

“Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” — Ephesians 5:16

Being separated from my wife while she has been in Australia has caused me to think about something I had never really considered quite this way before.

This is the only shot we have at this.

I love my wife. I miss her. And being apart has reminded me just how precious the ordinary moments of marriage really are—the conversations, the laughter, sitting together doing absolutely nothing, going somewhere together, waking up beside one another, sharing a meal, praying together, even simply knowing that the person you love is in the next room.

Those things can seem so ordinary when we have them every day.

But separation has a way of teaching you that ordinary moments are not ordinary at all.

They are gifts.

And they are temporary.

Jesus said:

“For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” — Matthew 22:30

There will be no sorrow in eternity. There will be no loneliness, no regret, and nothing lacking in the presence of our Lord.

But there is something about Christ's words that strikes me deeply when I think about my wife.

Marriage belongs to this life.

God has given me this woman to love now.

That means the opportunity I have to be her husband is something I should never take for granted.

TIME IS SOMETHING WE CAN NEVER GET BACK

We spend money and can earn more.

We lose possessions and can replace them.

We make plans and can change them.

But there is one thing we spend every single day that can never be recovered:

Time.

Yesterday is gone.

The hour you just spent is gone.

The morning you wasted being angry is gone.

The evening you allowed an argument to steal is gone.

The opportunity you had to hold your wife, tell her you love her, laugh with her, listen to her, or simply enjoy being beside her—that particular moment will never come again.

Moses prayed:

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” — Psalm 90:12

Perhaps we need to learn to number not only our days, but our days together.

None of us knows how many there will be.

DON'T LET SMALL THINGS STEAL SOMETHING PRECIOUS

Marriage brings two imperfect people together.

There will be disagreements.

There will be misunderstandings.

There will be moments when one person says something poorly or the other takes something differently than it was intended. There will be preferences, frustrations, disappointments, and occasions when both people are convinced they are right.

But I have been thinking:

How much of it really matters?

How many arguments that seemed enormous at the time are almost impossible to remember a year later?

How many evenings have husbands and wives surrendered to anger over something that, looking back, wasn't worth five minutes of the time it stole?

The Bible says:

“Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” — Ephesians 4:26

There is wisdom in that.

Reconcile quickly.

Not because the disagreement necessarily meant nothing, and not because genuine problems should be ignored. Sometimes things need to be discussed, corrected, forgiven, and worked through.

But don't make a temporary disagreement more valuable than the person God has given you.

Don't sacrifice days of fellowship trying to win an argument.

Sometimes being reconciled is worth far more than being proven right.

STOP AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER

Life gets busy.

There is ministry.

There is work.

There are bills.

There are responsibilities.

There are people who need us, places we need to be, calls we need to answer, problems we need to solve, and tomorrow's responsibilities already demanding today's attention.

And somewhere in all of that busyness, it is possible to neglect the person sleeping beside us.

We can become so busy doing life together that we forget to enjoy life together.

Solomon wrote:

“Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity…” — Ecclesiastes 9:9

Notice those words:

Live joyfully.

God did not merely give us someone with whom to pay bills, raise children, run a household, or accomplish a ministry.

He gave us someone to love.

Someone to enjoy.

Someone to laugh with.

Someone to make memories with.

Someone whose hand we should still reach for.

Someone whose presence should never become so familiar that we forget what a privilege it is to have them.

TREAT THE ORDINARY DAYS LIKE THEY MATTER

We often think we need a special occasion to make marriage special.

An anniversary.

A birthday.

A holiday.

A vacation.

But a lifetime is mostly made up of ordinary Tuesdays.

Maybe love is demonstrated most beautifully when we learn to make those ordinary days count.

Stop what you're doing and kiss your wife.

Sit beside her.

Put the phone away.

Listen to her story even if you've heard it before.

Take the drive.

Have the coffee.

Walk together.

Laugh at something stupid.

Tell her she's beautiful.

Pray together.

Tell her you love her while you still have the opportunity to say it.

Don't wait until someone is on the other side of the world before realizing how precious it was simply to have them sitting beside you.

LOVE LIKE TODAY MATTERS

The Bible says:

“Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” — Matthew 19:6

When, by God's grace, you find the woman you dreamed of spending your life with, cherish her.

Don't allow familiarity to make you careless with something you once prayed for.

Don't allow ministry to make you neglect your marriage.

Don't allow pride to prolong an argument.

Don't allow petty differences to steal precious hours.

Don't save tenderness for tomorrow.

Don't assume there will always be another evening, another weekend, another anniversary, another opportunity.

There may be.

By God's grace, there may be thousands of them.

But none of us has been promised that.

FINAL THOUGHT — THIS IS OUR TIME

One day this earthly life will be over.

We will stand in the presence of Jesus Christ, and eternity will stretch before us.

And according to the words of our Lord, marriage as we know it belongs to this present life.

That makes me look differently at the woman God has given me.

This is my time to be her husband.

This is my time to love her.

This is my time to protect our marriage.

This is my time to forgive quickly.

This is my time to hold her.

This is my time to laugh with her.

This is my time to make memories with her.

This is my time to thank God for her.

So while God gives us today, I don't want to waste it.

I don't want petty disagreements to steal what cannot be replaced.

I don't want busyness to rob us of each other.

I don't want pride to consume hours that could have been spent loving one another.

Because time is the one commodity we spend that we can never earn back.

Love your wife today.

Cherish your husband today.

Reconcile quickly.

Forgive freely.

Hold each other a little longer.

Laugh a little more.

And don't become so busy preparing for tomorrow that you miss the person God has placed beside you today.

“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” — 1 Corinthians 13:13

This is the only time we have.

By God's grace, let's not waste it.