True love

" Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it; " Ephesians 5:25 KJV

NGENDAKUMANA Leonard is one of the believers who are following the training on the first principles teachings at Holy Spirit Revival Church of Kabezi- Bujumbura. He is married and the couple has two children.

For a long time, As he told us, He thought He understood love. He thought that as long as He was faithful, paid the bills, and stayed out of trouble, He was doing his part as a husband. But deep down, something was missing—both in him and in their marriage.

Later, He was introduced to the first principles—the bible based teachings which helped him to go back to the foundation, to what’s absolutely true in marriage when they were doing the first booklet of the second series which is entitled" Enjoying your Marriage"

Through prayer, Scripture, and reflection on those first principles, Leonard came to a humbling realization: He wasn’t loving her wife the way God designed. He was giving her duty, not devotion. He was present in body but often absent in heart. He wasn’t leading with kindness, serving with joy, or sacrificing with intentionality. God didn’t design love to be passive or self-serving. He designed it to reflect His own love—faithful, patient, and sacrificial.

Through those teachings, Leonard saw that He was called to love her wife as Christ loves the Church—not when it’s convenient, not only when he feels like it, but every day, in action and in heart. This changed everything in his life. He stopped seeing her wife's needs as interruptions. He then began showing up with attention, speaking with gentleness, and offering help without being asked. He see each day, according to him, as another chance to honor God by loving her the way He intended.

Thanks to first principles teachings, Leonard has learned that real love starts with surrender—surrendering one's pride, one's comfort, and one's assumptions. And in that surrender, He has found joy, peace, and a deeper connection with his wife than He ever thought possible.

He thanks God for showing him how to love—not as the world defines it, but as God himself designed it."