The Little Engine That Could Consecrate

"I-think-I can, I-think-I-can, I-think-I-can . . . "

It's a familiar mantra chanted by a small train engine in the famous children's book,

The Little Engine that Could which was first published in the U.S. in 1930.  

"In the tale, a long train must be pulled over a high mountain. The request is sent to a small engine, who agrees to try. The engine succeeds in pulling the train over the mountain while repeating its motto: "I-think-I-can" (Wikipedia).

Metaphorically speaking, I am a small engine!  I live a pretty average and quiet existence in the rail yard of life.  In our marriage, my spouse (another small engine) is chugging along the tracks beside me.  Sometimes there are twists and turns, sometimes the tracks are laid straight out in front of us as far as we can see.  Sometimes the views are grand and glorious and other times they are mundane and repetitive. 

Although this analogy may be based on a children's storybook, there is nothing childish about it . . .  

How would knowing about and living the law of consecration help me on this railroad of a marital journey?  

  

First of all, what is consecration?  

The LDS Guide to the Scriptures says consecration is, 

"To dedicate, to make holy, or to become righteous" (lds.org).  

Regarding consecration, H. Wallace Goddard says, "Those who know God and have experimented with His ways . . . know that the more they turn their lives over to God, the better their lives become.  The ultimate joy is to surrender completely to God.  We turn everything over to Him and life gets inexpressibly good" (Drawing Heaven Into Your Marriage, p. 93).

Goddard gives the train analogy as an example to describe consecration.  He says, 

"Only those train cars hooked to the engine can be pulled up the mountain.  

Only that which we bring to the altar can be sanctified and perfected" 

(Drawing Heaven Into Your Marriage, p. 94).  

So consecration has everything to do with marriage . . . 

As I pull each train car full of my imperfections up the mountain, I am offering my whole soul to God to be consecrated to Him, asking him to sanctify and perfect me through His grace and mercy.  By consecrating my life to God, I am able to consecrate my life to my husband as well.  

As Goddard said, "[I] can gladly offer [my] best efforts.  [I] appreciate all that [my] partner offer[s]" 

(p. 102).  

It is important to remember . . . I CHOSE my husband!  

I chose him with all his imperfections, faults, and weaknesses, and he chose me with mine.

 

"Do we bring our greatest generosity and richest forgiving to our marriages?  

Do we offer our whole souls and our best efforts as an offering (see Omni 1:26)?  

Or do our partnerships get half-hearted, occasional efforts?  

Our marriages are ideal places to practice the law of consecration."

(Goddard, p. 102).  

  I am the little engine that could consecrate!  

"I-think-I-can,  I-think-I-Can, 

I-KNOW-I-can!"