Being the best you can only be accomplished when you strive to excel in every aspect of your life.  You are not reaching your full potential if you are a great employee but a terrible neighbor.  You are less than you can be if you are a wonderful church member, but a lousy citizen in your community.  Being the best that we can be comes about when we are pleasing God in every aspect of our lives.

If you are married, what kind of husband or wife you are matters.  If you are not a Christian at home, you are not a Christian at all.  Our goal, if married, should be to be the best spouse possible, which can only be achieved by following God’s plan for the home.  That plan is laid out clearly in the Word of God.

Ephesians 5:22–30 (ESV)
²² Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. ²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ²⁶ that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ²⁷ so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. ²⁸ In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, ³⁰ because we are members of his body.

Husbands, you must love your wife as Christ loved the church.  That means you give yourself up for her.  You put her and her best interests before your own.  You act, talk, and treat her in such a way that will help her live a sanctified life and be holy and without blemish.  And you nourish and cherish her like Christ does the church.  This involves you being the spiritual leader in the home as the head of the household, always putting God first, and demanding that your family does the same (Joshua 24:15).

Wives, you must respect your husband, honoring him as the head of the house by always submitting to him.  You do this by realizing that he has final authority in all matters. Your submission should be joyful and not forced in any way because you recognize that when you submit to your husband, you are obeying the Lord.  When you willingly submit to your husband, you are also helping him to lead as he is commanded to do.  A resisting wife, who is always challenging the decisions her husband makes, causes it to be a burden for him to be the head.  Remember wives, God created you to be your husband’s helper (Genesis 2:18).

This is God’s divine pattern for marriage.  If you want to be the best you, you must be the best spouse you can be, and you do that by being the kind of husband or wife God wants you to be.  The world scoffs at these principles, but the One who created and instituted marriage, that is, God, knows what makes marriage work and how you can be the best you possible.

One more point about being the best spouse you can be.  While following God’s plan for marriage is the foundation for having a magnificent marriage, there is something else equally important to the marriage, and that is being a Christian.  A marriage made up of two Christians never fails.  Remember, a Christian lives by the Word of God, and the Word of God is filled with principles that make marriages great.  Everything from controlling the tongue to putting others before yourself are principles that, when you live by them daily, will help you be the best spouse you can be.

So, you want to be the best you?  If your married, that includes being the best spouse you can be, and you do that by being a Christian who lives by the Word of God (there is no other kind), and who excels in the role that God created for you in marriage.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.