i heard a speaker a year ago say we shouldn’t worry about trying to please  the Lord because He has accepted us just as we are. I thought to myself, “Everything I do is an attempt to please the Lord”. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:9 “it is my ambition whether in this life or the next to please the Lord in all that I do”.  I don’t work at pleasing the Lord to be accepted, but because I love Him with all my heart and that is what a person who loves someone does. Over the years I ask the question more and more, “What really pleases the Lord a lot?” That question probably guides my decision making more than anything else. I have come to the conclusion that I can sense the Lord’s pleasure in me more than anything else. When Jesus was baptized the Father spoke from heaven, “this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased”. God communicates His pleasure in us. If we don’t have pleasing Him at the top of our mind you won’t even know why you are feeling joy, you will think it is because of an event or something that you ate. “Entering into the joy of our master” is the main reward for faithfulness Matthew 25:21.

as I have asked that question over and over every day I have come to the conclusion that right at the top of the list of activities that please the Lord with me is when I love my wife sacrificially and unconditionally. That means I work hard at making her very happy with my words, my actions, and my attentiveness. That means that I work hard at making my wife the happiest person on the earth even when she is grumpy, or not feeling good, or distracted with grandkids. I am to love my wife the way Jesus loved the Church and gave Himself up for her.

So many men blame their wife for the quality of their marriage and nag at them and get upset at them. It not only doesn’t change anything they a. re very displeasing to the Lord, and will feel it. That inner sense of failure they often blame on their wives as well.

it is January 2nd. It would be a good to change our attitude by making some measurable goals that focus on making our wife the happiest person on the planet. If you don’t know what that is ask her.