Sacred Marriage Gift Edition

God makes no secret of how he uses pain, disappointment, difficulty, and dryness to shape us into the image of his Son. Christianity will always sing the song of self-denial

To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure” (Titus 1:15)

If you place relentless demands on yourself; if, without mercy, you accuse yourself throughout the day for any number of failings and missed opportunities; if you feel contemptuous toward yourself, that you are not worthy of occasionally buying a nice piece of clothing (“What a waste of money!”) or ever ordering dessert (“So many calories!”), that you are too despicable to take a moment for yourself, that you have no reason to laugh or play or be touched or served, then you are walking in self-hatred—and this self-hatred will ultimately lead to self-destruction

Horney’s markers of “neurotic self-hatred” are “relentless demands on self, merciless self-accusation, self-contempt, self-frustrations, self-tormenting, and self-destruction.”

Instead, they warn us not to try to find our happiness, meaning, and fulfillment in social systems, polluted appetites, or actions that antagonize God

Do you see the world God created as a giant temptress, waiting to lure us away from true faith and devotion, or do you see it as a mother who nurtures our faith and disciplines us toward pure devotion and abundant life

For years, however—and this may be true of you as well—I considered only the pain of the cross, not its benefits; and in doing so, I foolishly denied my God much delight. Our heavenly Father loves us! He wants to bless us, his children, with deep and abiding pleasure.
Will you worship him by receiving these gifts and enjoying them, without guilt and with great gratitude

God has given us taste buds, nerve endings, the capacity to laugh, the ability to create, eyes to marvel, minds to wonder, noses to smell, and hands to feel. We give back to him in proportion to how much we enjoy these good gifts.

delight. Isaiah 62:4–5 reads, “The Lord will take delight [i.e., pleasure] in you …; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”

The fact that we are children of God—and that Jesus urges us to become like children—speaks of a certain demeanor, a certain delight, a certain trust in God’s goodness and favor toward us. Children love to play. The thought of children forced to work in a factory or to toil all day long in the hot sun appalls us—we’ve passed laws to prevent it. And while God’s servants are not merely his children (he also calls us to sacrificial and mature service), we never become less than his children. And healthy children often engage in play