Maybe
you’ve heard about the empty-nest couple, as the husband took off his glasses
and lay his head on his wife’s lap she said “You know, without your glasses on
you look just like the young handsome man I married.” He replied, “Without my glasses,
you still look pretty good, too.”
It’s
a good thing that marriages survive on more than good looks!
To
all who are married and have stuck it out through good times and bad, for
richer or poorer, in sickness and health, and plan to keep doing so until death
parts your ways, I offer you my most sincere commendation and appreciation. I’d
give you a medal if I had one!
Marriage
is a wonderful gift from God. It’s His divine design for the good of mankind,
for companionship, friendship, intimacy, help, encouragement, strength,
security, and joy. God knew what He was doing when He created a woman for Adam
from his rib, “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,” as Adam described this
exciting new creature in the garden.
The
Bible says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold
fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). In affirming
this truth, Jesus went on to say, “So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6).
Contrary
to popular opinion, marriage is not a man-made institution subject to change
with the cultural tide. It’s God’s original blueprint for the flourishing of
the human race. His design for marriage is for one man to be united with one
woman in a lifetime covenant of faithfulness and love. It’s a perfect plan. And
it’s the height of arrogance and foolishness for anyone to dismiss or attempt
to redefine what God has perfectly created for good.
“Let
marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for
God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous” (Hebrews 13:4).
I
want to encourage you to honor marriage! Treasure your marriage by thanking God
for the gift of your spouse, by praying with and for your spouse, by asking God
to make you a better husband or wife, by learning to praise and encourage
rather than critique and put down, by listening well, by loving sacrificially
and respecting one another graciously, by resolving to work things out, by asking
for forgiveness when needed and freely granting forgiveness, by choosing to
overlook some faults and maintaining realistic expectations.
And
if you’re not married, will you seek to be a champion for God’s way of doing
marriage? For the blessing of every area of community life – economically,
socially, mentally, emotionally, morally, spiritually?
My
in-laws are celebrating 58 years of marriage this week. My parents’ 50th
wedding anniversary is in September. Amy and I will celebrate 27 years in a
couple of weeks. Good, strong, thriving marriages aren’t based on good looks
and they aren’t built on sand. It takes hard work, commitment, faithfulness,
and love. But firm on the foundation of God’s grace, a marriage covenant can
indeed last a lifetime.
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