Thursday; July 15

Have you noticed that our nation has spent a lot of time over the last few years defining who could get married, but not discussing much about how to keep people married? As a lot of people lined up in courtrooms to advocate for civil rights, a lot more people were visiting courtrooms dissolving relationships. Divorce has been a major issue in our nation through the years and it isn’t getting much better!

When we discuss the longevity of relationships, I think we need to start at the beginning. The best marriages are those that begin with a committed friendship. Marriage isn’t about pooling resources so that people can buy a house, it is about uniting two lives so that they can become one relationship. It begins by finding someone you like and spending the next several decades figuring out how to love them. Speaking of love, we need to remember that it isn’t merely an advanced from of physical lust, it is an emotional commitment to support and encourage another person – to help them to have the best life they can have. Marital love begins with a verbal commitment during a wedding ceremony; but spends the years to come trying to manifest God’s description of true love, “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (I Corinthians 13:4-7).
Let’s not just focus on the lives of those “falling in love”, let’s commit to being those people who live in love. Marriage has a powerful impact on people, let’s do it right and do it well.

Think About It!

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