Bear One Another's Burdens

When Daddy and I were at the beach one afternoon on St. George Island recently, the wind picked up pretty briskly and nearly blew us away. We felt like we were being exfoliated by the sand. We knew it was time to go in. So we packed up our belongings, divvied up what we were carrying and got ready to go back to the beach house. As we started to leave, we noticed our friends, Philip and Joanna, struggling with their beach canopy in the breeze. So we stopped to give them a hand in taking it down and even helped to carry some of their items back to the beach house. The next afternoon was similar in gusty winds and our time was short lived after perpetual pelting by tiny grains of sand. So we again, helped each other collect our belongings and got ready to head in. This time we saw about 25 feet from us, a young couple as they, too, were getting ready to leave. But what we saw kinda shocked us. The husband was doing all the work. He was taking down the beach canopy. He was putting everything back in the wagon. His wife stood there watching their toddler. Your Daddy said, "I want to walk over to that couple and say, 'That is not how marriage works. You help each other.'" Now, we obviously don't know the whole story here. There may be a very good reason why she was just standing there. And maybe she felt keeping an eye on their toddler was helping, but from our standpoint she was being lazy. Even the toddler could have helped to gather items into the wagon. It was just a sad, selfish situation from our viewpoint.

Don't ever be so self-absorbed that you don't help each other. You are in this together, so it's important that you help one another and be a team. This goes for cooking, cleaning, handyman work, laundry, bed making, lawn mowing and carrying beach supplies. Don't expect the other person to carry the daily load alone. The Bible tells us to "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Galatians 6:2. Be helpful. Anticipate needs and fill them. Do unexpected random acts of kindness for one another. Jump up and help each other out with whatever you are doing. You are in this together.

Discussion: Do you help each other out with different things? Do you know of couples where one person seems to do all the work?

Prayer: Help us, Lord, to please remember to see beyond ourselves to the needs of our loved one. Inspire us to be helpful and serve one another. In Jesus name. Amen.