For the past couple of months, my fiance and I have been attending weekly pre-marital counseling sessions through our church. We only have one session left with our counselor couple, and one separate session with a financial counselor. As our final “homework assignment,” we’ve been given a simple yet extremely challenging task; spend one entire day with the goal of being like Jesus.

In more detail, we must spend a day from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep striving to act like Jesus. Every decision we make, action we take, and word we utter must be a reflection of who Jesus is. Essentially, we are to go about our day constantly asking ourselves, “what would Jesus do?”

Now, when I first read the assignment, I have to admit I was not extremely excited. I mean, it honestly just sounds exhausting. Trying to make every single thing we do a reflection of Jesus? Eesh. That’s impossible!

Later, as I thought about what day I would choose to act like Jesus, a realization came to me. To put it simply, the assignment is to follow Jesus’ footsteps. As a Christian, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and that He was perfect. I also believe it is my task in life to follow him and try to be more like him. In fact, the most basic definition of a Christian is a person who follows Christ. So that leaves me with one question; why on earth is it so daunting to try to spend a day actually behaving like a Christian?

As a Christian, it should be my goal and desire day in and day out to be more like Christ. This should be the one thing that defines me most as a person- I am first and foremost a daughter of Christ. However, this challenge brought up a serious red flag for me. If living my life like Jesus sounds so difficult to me, perhaps that’s because my priorities aren’t straight. And as I prepare to enter into marriage, I feel that it is imperative that my priorities get straightened out.  I need to have a firm grasp on my purpose and duty in my own life before I join it with my fiance’s.

So it has become my goal to live like Christ as best as I can every day. I am a Christian, after all! Of course I will make mistakes and fail to live up to God’s perfect standards, but that’s why Jesus came to live on earth in the first place. I know that when I mess up, I am already forgiven. In fact, that awareness of God’s grace will only reciprocate into my ability to have grace for others.

So what does this have to do with marriage? Everything.

Imagine if every husband and wife lived like Jesus. How would it change the way they treat each other? How much more clearly would their unconditional love towards each other be reflected? How much more love, grace, and joy would fill every marriage? If you haven’t already guessed, the answers to these questions are all good. Living like Jesus is not only good for the individual, it is good for the marriage.

Don’t believe me? Try it out! Live your life like Jesus for one day. See how it changes your perspectives and transforms your relationship.