The Importance of Marriage

Before I get started on what I really want to talk about, I thought I would share a quick picture with you guys. Look who finally got over his fear of dog bones??

Awww, we're so proud of our little puppy for finally deciding that the bone was not out to get him. Now if we can just get him to be okay with the DVD player opening and closing, we'll be doing really good! haha.

Anyways, I wanted to share with you guys something that I came across earlier this morning. I follow a really great website called Unveiled Wife (link is here). I love reading the posts on the website and even had my own article published a couple of weeks ago (if you missed it, the link for that is here). Today's post was great. She ran across a YouTube video on the importance of marriage. I highly encourage all of you to read her post and watch the video, you can do that by following this link here.

I absolutely loved the video for two reasons:

1) It was a great reminder for me that my marriage is truly important to God. It is so important that I keep my vows and work hard in my marriage so it can be a reflection of Christ's love for His church.

2) This video really puts some weight on marriage for a world that is becoming so flippant with marriage. I wish I could carry this video in my pocket and whip it out throughout the day to show people just how important their marriage really is.

I must admit, there are some days where I am truly disappointed at how lightly even Christians take their marriages. Divorce rates are climbing at an alarming rate, even in the church! We are so wrapped up in the idea that "God wants me to be happy so if I'm not happy it's okay to have an affair or just leave my spouse altogether." We are so selfish! It was never God's intention for marriage to be taken so lightly.

Now, I do recognize that there are some situations where we need to leave, such as a cheating spouse or a spouse who is physically abusive; but, leaving someone because he/she no longer gives you that "heart-racing, butterfly feeling" is simply not an option. Leaving your spouse because he/she does not communicate well or refuses to help you with your housework is NOT Biblical. If there is something 'wrong' with your spouse, then you need to ask GOD for help, not Oprah and not Dr. Phil. You need to begin praying two things:

1) Lord, what can I do and what can I change about myself that will make me a better spouse? So many times we are trying to remove the splinter out of our spouse's eye when we have a log in our own eyes. Many times we need to have a change of heart in order for our spouse to have a change in their actions.

2) Bring your complaints before the Lord. Ask Him how to resolve conflicts. Ask Him to speak into your spouse's heart. For goodness sakes, He created the universe so why do we think He can't fix our marriages?

You see, we would much rather complain to our friends and hear how justified we are for leaving, rather than actually work to make our marriage a success. We are such a "right-now" generation that we do not want to wait for the Holy Spirit to breath life into our marriages. Remember, the grass isn't greener on the other side, it's greener where we fertilize it. So begin fertilizing your marriage with prayer. God is not going to ignore you or be mad at you for bringing your problems to Him. In fact, He will be overjoyed that you did and be more than willing to help. It may not come in your timing, or how you want it to, but just trust Him that He is going to take care of you and your spouse and help you through whatever problems you are having.

I can't stress the need for prayer in our marriages enough. We need to be praying for our spouse and our marriages daily. Wives: specifically ask God to guard your husbands minds and hearts. Their lives are filled with temptations between television and billboards. Ask Him to keep their thoughts pure and for strength to resist these daily temptations. Husbands: specifically ask God to give your wife strength. Most women are now juggling jobs and families, something that was practically unheard of fifty years ago. We have so much pressure on us to be this model-shaped woman who can work eight hours a day and then come home to prepare a two-hour dinner and have perfectly behaved children. Ask God to give us patience and strength to be the wives He has called us to be and to help us understand that we are not made to fulfill the image Hollywood fills our minds with.

I cannot get a phrase out of my mind that our Pastor spoke a few weeks ago: "It is time for someone to get angry at the enemy and to fight back."

It is time for someone to take a stand against the enemy. The enemy desires to destroy your marriage. He wants to see you have a terrible marriage. He wants to see your marriage crumble. It is time for someone to decide that Satan will not rip their marriage apart. It is time for someone to begin praying over their marriage. It is time for someone to press through the difficult times instead of giving into the lies the enemy has sang to us for so long. It is time for someone to decide that it's not about how they feel in the moment, it's about keeping the covenant they made with their spouse before the God of the universe.

It's time. Take that first step. Fight for your marriage. I promise, God will not leave you in times of trouble. But we have to be willing to press on through the fire.

"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe."     ~Ephesians 1:17-19