Home Alone

Home Alone

New Wives

Read: Deuteronomy 24:5

Arriving home from work, Karen picked up a note from the kitchen counter. David would be working a little late tonight. She shrugged her shoulders and grabbed a soda from the fridge. Should I feel guilty about not minding? she wondered. After all, they’d been married for only seven months. Her husband was loving, dependable, and hard working. So where had the spark gone? Why did Karen feel that she would be just as happy living alone? I didn’t think marriage would make my life perfect, she thought, but I did expect more than this.

According to the laws established for Israel in Deuteronomy, a newly married man could not be drafted for military service or given business that would take him away from home. For the first year, his responsibility was to concentrate on making his wife happy. Having this time together free from other distractions allowed the relationship to mature and united the couple, who probably hadn’t spent time together before their parents arranged the marriage. The wife must have enjoyed being the focus of her husband’s attention for a whole year.

Even when we have great marriages, we can’t expect our husbands to meet all our needs. Often we think that the right relationship, a better job, or a different lifestyle will make us happy. If we just had more money, or perfect looks, or lived somewhere else, we would be perfectly content. But God is the only source of true joy. He created us to enjoy a close relationship with him. Nothing on earth will satisfy us if we don’t have that in place first. When we concentrate on loving, worshiping, and obeying God, then happiness will find us—and it will last a lot longer than one year.

Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found.

Psalm 119:35