Stop! Share Your Banana!
Esther and I have a few idiosyncrasies in our relationship. Over the years, we have developed some habits that others might look at as being a little strange. For example, nearly every morning we share a single banana and every evening we share a single chocolate protein bar. Not only do we share them, the person who gets them first also cuts them two pieces and gives the largest portion to the other. The list of our peculiarities also includes: the first person using the water pick fills it for the other, and the first person to brush their teeth puts the toothpaste on the other’s toothbrush.
Probably like most husbands, I have a yearning to want to lavish all I can on my wife. I want to do big things for her and I want to buy her expensive presents. But ultimately, I believe big things aren’t what wives really want. I’ve found that what most women really desire is a home where there is a perpetual atmosphere of affection and sacrificial love. This is the kind of love that requires you to every day give the largest piece of the banana to your spouse.
You may not like bananas, but every day is full of possibilities. Your own “peculiar” list could include perhaps a foot rub, making the bed, picking up the clothes on the floor without complaining, or, when they are out of the house, doing some chore your spouse usually does to surprise them.
When sacrificial love begins to become a lifestyle, it’s like a chemical reaction that begins to effervesce and bring great joy to both the doer’s and the receiver’s hearts. The filling of your heart means you’re on the way to a fulfilled marriage. Along with that comes the greater sense that you’re doing your marriage the way God intended.
Sacrificial love, God’s kind of love, not only is good for your marriage but living for your spouse introduces you to ever-deepening levels of love and unity – probably deeper than you ever knew was possible. The overwhelming sense that you are now “standing on holy ground” comes, and the words flow freely from your heart declaring, “I really love my spouse!”
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1
1 Corinthians 13:13, NIV
Have a FRUITful-banana-day, TED
