all the days of my life!

Read this today in an article on BoundlessLine.org (website for Christian young adults).  

As a woman, God designed you to be a helper. In marriage, that means using your gifts to help your husband carry through his leadership. In all of life, including dating, it means living out all the 'one-another' verses in Scripture, as brothers and sisters in Christ. We are called to help one another grow in godliness. That's no less true when we're dating or hoping to date. His godliness...should be your primary motivation.

Love that last statement, "his godliness should be your primary motivation."  Years ago, I heard a devotion on the Proverbs 31 woman -- I don't even remember who it was by, but I remember the emphasis on verse 12, "She does him [her husband] good and not evil all the days of her life."  I probably remember it so well because of this note I still have written in the margin of my Bible:  "I am to love my future husband and seek his highest good all the days of my life, even before I know him."  

How I pray for him.
How I relate to other guys.
How I prepare to be a good wife/homemaker/mom.How I take care of my body and health.
How I grow as a Christian and a godly woman.
How I practice purity and faithfulness.

All these things and more will have effect in that future relationship.  Are you and I making decisions that seek our future spouse's highest good even now? 

And when that relationship happens, I love the challenge that even then, our focus is to be on building the other person up in the Lord, helping them to become all they're called to be.  The full sentence in that article, by the way, says "His godliness, not your hope for romance, should be your primary motivation."  What girl doesn't love a little romance? :-)  But keep the priorities straight.  There's a bigger, more glorious picture to see:  a picture of two people who love because He first loved them, two people who help each other grow in faith and godliness, two people who further God's kingdom together.