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| In This Issue • Marriage Skill 22: Obey the Needs Command • New Video Testimonial • Other Upcoming Opportunities |
| Marriage Skill 22:
Obey the Command to Know and Meet Your Mate’s Top Needs Knowing and meeting your partner’s need of the moment is the second most important issue in life. The second greatest commandment is to love others. When asked “which is the great commandment in Law?”, Jesus responded, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment.” He then offered the second greatest: “The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:36-40). He claimed that “on these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” Next to loving God, the most important thing is that we love others, and this is the main theme from the entire Old Testament (“Law and Prophets”). Love is knowing, desiring and choosing what is best (from God’s perspective) for another person. Love is not just “the feeling you feel when you feel that feeling you never felt before.” We must know what is truly their need of the moment (from God’s perspective), and then desire and choose to meet it with genuineness. Your partner should be at the top of the “to love list.” The Greek word for “neighbor” means near one. Obviously, the closest “near one” is our mate. It just makes sense that we have a greater responsibility to love our mate, our nearest one, the one to whom we have vowed to love “until death do us part,” above all others (besides God). Therefore, the second most important task on our “things to do list” is that we know and meet our partner’s need(s) of the moment. We have many responsibilities in life, but next to loving God nothing is a higher priority than loving your partner—nothing. We must master that by studying or learning from our mate all the ways that we can “remove their aloneness” by meeting their needs. Anyone who neglects this is missing out on their purpose in life. God is loving on your mate, but He doesn’t want to do it alone. He wants you to partner up with Him as His colleague to shower your mate with unconditional love. How important is it to love our partner and know their needs? |
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| About Karl Elkins Karl Elkins, LPC, ThM, MA, CSC, BCPCC, DAPA has 25 years of counseling experience and is an Adjunct Instructor at College of Biblical Studies teaching Marriage and Family courses. He is Founder and President of Christway Counseling Center P.C. specializing in marriage and family counseling. He earned a Master’s degree in Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, and a Master’s degree in Counseling from Colorado Christian University. He was formerly on staff with Intimate Life Ministries and director of a Houston Minirth-Meier New Life Clinic. He is married to Terry Elkins and has two grown children. |
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| Other Upcoming Opportunities Two-Day Marriage Clinic™ The fastest way to marriage harmony! A two-day clinic to learn and experience the 25 Core Relational Life Skills. More Info » Three-Day Accelerated Marriage Counseling (AMC)™ Includes all of the topics, instruction, and counseling projects in the Two-Day Marriage Clinic™, but is completely private—you, your partner and the counselor only. More Info » Monthly Marriage Enrichment Group Ongoing accountability group helps you internalize the good practices you’ve learned, avoid returning to bad habits, and develop new marriage-building skills. Next meeting is on July 1. More Info » Contact Information Phone: (832) 358-0900 E-Mail: terry@christwaycounseling.com Web: www.christwaycounseling.com  |
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