The A.C.T.S. of Marriage
 
Not long ago as I sat in prayer for an upcoming sermon titled Prayer 101, I was moved to thoughts of my marriage. My wife and I recently celebrated our eighth year together, and I was struggling to show her on a consistent basis just how much she means to me and how proud I am to be her husband. Deep down I knew God had blessed me beyond measure with this amazing woman, friend and mother to our beautiful children. How could I take what should be a simple act of love and live it daily?

It turns out the answer was in my upcoming sermon which included the often used A.C.T.S. acronym for simplifying prayer. The sermon was not intended to be a deep theological discussion on the depths of prayer, but on the simplicity of prayer. Often times in life we take what should be a simple process and complicate it. The truth is, in the same way many Christians struggle with prayer, I found myself struggling to show my wife how much I
value her.

The “A” in A.C.T.S stands for adoration. I absolutely adore my wife, yet it saddened me to think how rarely I expressed my feelings to her. Jesus said in Matthew 6:9, “Pray then like this: Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name.” How often do we fail to show reverence for the holiness, mercy, and splendor of God? I began to realize all the things I adored about my wife: her strength, her wisdom, her love for our children and her ability to find balance in life. The challenge was taking these feelings from my heart, moving them to my lips and on
to her ears.

I moved on to “C” which stands for confess.  The problem with confessing is our pride
often gets in the way and hinders our ability or willingness to admit our faults. One thing we must remember is nothing is hidden from God. Hebrews 4:13(a) teaches,“And no creature is hidden from His sight.” It was apparent to me all the things I needed to confess to my wife. The list ranged from taking her for granted down to spending money on foolish things. 
In order to be genuine, I would need to remove selfish pride and pray for humility. 

The “T” in the acronym is for thanksgiving. In our society we tend to dwell on the things (usually materialistic) we think our life is missing without regard for all that we have been blessed with from God.  1 Thessalonians 5:18(a), “Give thanks in all circumstances.” I realized “thank you” was a phrase seldom used for everything my wife does on a daily basis. My heart was broken as I realized it only takes a moment to offer a genuine “thank you”.

Finally, the “S” is for supplication, praying for needs in your life and the needs of others. Philippians 4:19 promises that God will meet all of our needs according to His will. I realized there are some needs that I was failing to meet in my wife’s life. One was her need for alone time with God. Another was the opportunity to be pampered after a hard week.  I knew I would never meet her needs the way God could, but there were needs I could meet as a Christ-like husband should. 
 
Since implementing these A.C.T.S. of marriage we have had a renewal in our love for one another, a deepening in our commitment to God and to raise our children in a Christ centered loving home.            


To A Holy Marriage,

Randy Hollingsworth
http://randyhollingsworth.com