| Day 291: Read today's devotional on Bible Gateway. The Joy of MarriageDrink water from your own well—share your love only with your wife. Why spill the water of your springs in the streets, having sex with just anyone? You should reserve it for yourselves. Never share it with strangers. Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. She is a loving deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts satisfy you always. May you always be captivated by her love. Why be captivated, my son, by an immoral woman, or fondle the breasts of a promiscuous woman? For the Lord sees clearly what a man does, examining every path he takes.
(Proverbs 5:15-21) Reflect"Drink water from your own well" is a picture of faithfulness in marriage. It means to enjoy the spouse God has given you. In desert lands, water is precious, and a well is a family's most important possession. In Old Testament times, stealing water from someone else's well was a crime just as sex with another man's wife was. In both cases, the offender is endangering the health and security of a family. In contrast to much of what we read, see, and hear today, this passage urges couples to look to each other for lifelong satisfaction and companionship. When a marriage seems routine or is in crisis, many temptations loom, which entice husbands and wives to desert each other for the lure of excitement and pleasures supposedly found elsewhere. Yet the grass is always greener on the other side, as the old saying goes. God designed marriage and sanctified it, and only within this covenant relationship can we find real love and fulfillment. God does not intend faithfulness in marriage to be boring. Sex is a gift God gives to married people for their mutual enjoyment. Real happiness comes when we decide to find pleasure in the relationship God has given or will give us and to commit ourselves to making it pleasurable for our spouse. The real danger is in doubting that God knows and cares for us. We then may resent his timing and carelessly pursue sexual pleasure without his blessing. RespondTake time to pray for your spouse (or future spouse if you are single). Then tell him or her what you appreciate about your marriage. | 
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