A loving doe, a graceful deer—may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love. . . . Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. (Proverbs 5:19, 31:30)
TRUE LOVELINESS. A spouse is to not merely be a friend but also a lover and romantic partner. On the one hand you should be intoxicated and sexually attracted by features of your partner’s body such as her breasts. But Proverbs 31:30 reminds us that physical beauty is fleeting and inexorably passes away with wear and tear and age. There is a deeper attraction, however, that comes from perceiving the beauty of character and also from years of sacrificing for each other and walking together through life’s varied circumstances. The more we fix our gaze on the loveliness of our spouse’s spirit, the more our physical attraction will grow, even as our physical attractiveness diminishes over the years.
Reflection: Have you embraced this understanding of “comprehensive attraction” or are you exclusively fixated on your partner’s figure, weight, and physique for judging his or her desirability?
Prayer: Lord, help us both, not only in looking at the other but at ourselves, not to fix on outward beauty but on “the inner disposition of the heart,” which is an “unfading beauty” (1 Peter 3:3–4). Amen.