Proactively Doing Good All Our Days

"She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life."

– Proverbs 31:12

Shortly after I was married, I read an article in the Ensign magazine called Life's Obligations. One passage in this article spoke to my newly married heart in a very significant way.

"Choose a companion you can always honor, you can always respect, one who will complement you in your own life, one to whom you can give your entire heart, your entire love, your entire allegiance, your entire loyalty. Determine that there will never be anything that will come between you, that will disrupt your marriage. Make it work. Resolve to make it work. Three is far too much of divorce wherein hearts are broken and sometimes lives are destroyed. Be fiercely loyal one to another.'' (Gordon B. Hinckley, May 1999 Ensign, italics added)

My husband and I have taken this counsel seriously to heart during 14 years of marriage. In fact, we often share this counsel with other newlyweds at weddings and bridal showers. It has been a saving grace to us.

Like this inspired counsel, a Proverbs 31 woman does good for her husband all the days of her life. That takes a lot of devotion and loyalty. And I will be the first to tell you it is the hardest thing in the world to do. I personally believe that before a marriage begins, Satan will try his hardest to push a young man and woman together prematurely, putting them in compromising situations and destroying their virtue. If that doesn't work then, after a marriage begins, he will slowly pull the couple apart, until the fabric of love and trust starts to tear and the relationship becomes damaged. Satan wants us to fail!

This is why it is so, so, so important to put our trust and our marriages in God's hands. God wants our marriages to succeed. But we have to be proactive about this. We can't just say, "God, take care of this for me" and sit back and be idle. We must be doing good. That means proactively finding ways to be devoted and loyal through our faith and actions. Satan wants to and will creep into our families and marriage any way he can, so we must be proactive in doing good all our days if we are to succeed. God wants us to succeed, so begin today to be proactive in your marriage, to do good for your husband, for your family, and for yourself!

With love,

Jean