Marriage Day (Photo credit: Fikra)
There is something about life that requires us to walk through it with someone else. As human beings, we were never intended to be islands, which is why relationships are so vital. Marriages are covenant relationships because they are designed to operate based on the exchange of strengths for weaknesses. More than anything, I'd like your marriage relationship to be blessed, so that it can stand the test of time.
If you are married, I want you to strengthen what you have by finding the time to continue dating one another, become spontaneous and keep the humor in your relationship. Because the institution of marriage is a fundamental necessity of a sound society. There is great hope and power for your marriage today, because the Lord Almighty designed the institution of marriage for humanity's sake and He will not give up on marriage ever, even when a demoralized society does.
We must be able to recognize and honor covenant relationships because they are bridges to our success and prosperity. I want you to remember that God is a redeemer and a restorer. The Lord gives you beauty for ashes and nothing is too difficult for Him.
I think most of us have the tendency to make things more complicated than we need to. I believe that if we made a subtle shift in the way we thought about our relationships we could have more success. We maximize our relationships when love is the foundation but some of us have a warped understanding of love. It's hard for emotional love to stand the test of time, because it is based on feelings and feelings change. However, lasting marital relationships are sustained by agape love (the God-kind of love), which is unconditional and based on a decision, not feelings.
Our culture has caused many young folks to believe that sex is love but sex is meant to be the result of a covenant and a covenant starts with sacrifice. In other words, sacrifice is putting another person's needs before your needs.
When two people have the ability to love each other in a sacrificial way, that's extremely powerful. I'll say it this way...
- Some days you must give more than your spouse. You're going to have to shoulder the load and demonstrate grace.
- Other days your spouse will need to give more than you. They will have to help bear your burdens.
- Every single day you're together, neither of you alone will be enough to take on the daily trials and tribulations that life sends your way, which is why you need your spouse and more importantly is why you need Jesus, because He's the source of sacrificial love.
This world places conditions on love. You've got to earn it by looking a certain way, dress a certain way and do what someone else demands. Marital love should be different from the love of the world, one that isn't built on conditions, unconditional love. That is the kind of love your heavenly Father has for you, doesn't that make you glad? It does me.
This is straight talk about marriage, those who were raised in a broken home because of divorce are more likely to experience divorce themselves and those couple who are on their second or third marriage find divorce as a viable option all to easily when faced with difficulties. But through working knowledge of covenant relationships the cycle can be broken. It is crucial that this cycle be broken, because it does have a depraved effect on society in general.
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