Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, NIV

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.”

Over the past few years as my wife and I have been working together for the Lord there is one thing that I have found to be completely true. There are talents and gifts that God has given to me, and there are talents and gifts that God has given to my wife. We both can function in those gifts independently, but when we use our gifts in conjunction with each other, God multiples them and their effectiveness in ways that we could never have imagined. When I read this verse Ecclesiastes, I was truly touched because I can see how true this has been in our lives.

This is not the only thing that I have learned about how a husband and wife work together as well. As I consider the individual talents and gifts that my wife and I have I can also see God’s amazing plan at work in our lives. The things that God has placed inside my wife, are always the perfect complement to the things that God has placed in me. And I can also see how my gifting complements those of my wife in the same way. While this sounds like a beautiful picture, there is also something that we often have to be careful of.

Everything that God has designed, the enemy wants to tear down. The same is true concerning the relationship between a husband and wife. One of the things that the enemy will sometimes seek to place in between a husband and wife who are functioning together is jealousy. We can look at the things that our spouse can do and the way that the Lord works through them and we can start to become envious of the things that they can do. The enemy starts to take our focus off of the Lord and what He is doing and starts to turn it towards ourselves. The very gifting in our spouse that is the complement to our own, becomes a source of contention between us. The enemy is such a deceiver!

So, when we face that situation, when we find ourselves in that position, what are we to do? We have to turn back to the truth. The reason why our spouse has those gifts and talents is because God has perfectly created them for us. When God created us, He had our spouse in mind and He made them to be the perfect fit for us. We must look at them and see God’s perfection in the way that He has created them and also see how much He loves us because He has put us together.  What an amazing plan and an amazing love!

Finally, for those who have not yet married, you must remember all of these truths and realize how seriously you should seek the Lord when it comes to marriage. Do not go out seeking to find a relationship that works and get married because the world tells you that you are compatible. Instead, pray that the Lord will bring you to meet the one that He has created for you. When you seek Him and His Kingdom first, and seek to pursue His good and perfect plan for your life, He will lead you in the right direction and you will find the one He has created for you.