As I said in my book review of Gary Thomasâs Cherish, this is a must-read for married couples, those about to be married, and those who counsel married couples. Please check out my review, and then enjoy a few quotes from this book.
âLearning to truly cherish each other turns marriage from an obligation into a delight. It lifts marriage above a commitment to a precious priority.â
âIn one sense, love is the nurturing aspect of marriage, while cherish is the âtastingâ aspect of marriage. Love meets the need; cherish tickles the tongue.â
âIf you want to be fully satisfied in your marriage, if you want your wife to feel cherished, then mentally treat your wife like Eve. Let her be, in your mind, in that way, the only woman in the world. Say with King Solomon, âMy dove, my perfect one, is the only oneâ (Song of Songs 6:9 ESV).âÂ
âYouâve already made your choice. In your ideal world, you have no intention of ever starting over with someone else, so why not put your energy into and your focus on guarding that choice, building on the strengths of that choice, and making yourself ever more grateful that you made that choice?â
âAt some point, if you want marital happiness, if you want to learn how to cherish a real man instead of longing for an imaginary composite, some âFrankensteinâ husband who somehow has it all, then you have to own your choice and even learn to cherish your choice. âMy vineyard, my very own, is for myselfâ (Song of Songs 8:12 NRSV).â
âThe call to cherish isnât to appreciate being pleasured by your spouse but to take pleasure in the pleasure of your spouse.â
âIf we want to cherish our spouses, we must learn to take an active interest in what interests them.â
âCherishing is expressed, or itâs not. Intimacy is built, or it is assaulted, even in the most mundane marital conversations.â
âThe act of consistently noticing and honoring our spouses cultivates and maintains a certain kind of relationship, and it shapes our hearts. Noticing and honoring sustain the force and power of cherishing. When we stop noticing and stop honoring our spouses in the little things, the relationship starves.â
âActive cherishingânoticing and then expressing the excellence you seeâis a way to shape our attitudes and to generate feelings of closeness and well-being. When we do what the Bible tells us to do, we will be doubly blessedâour spouses will be happier, increasing the joy in our marriages, and weâll become happier psychologically as well. Cherishing our spouses literally makes us feel better. So cherishing means waging war on contempt and going on the offense with gratitude.â
I will be sharing more quotes from Cherish soon. If youâd like to be notified when these quotes are posted, simply enter your email address in the field in the right column and click âSign me up!â You may also want to follow me on Twitter and Tumblr for other quality quotes I post every day.
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