Making Marriage Work (Part 1)

Where were you on February 23, 1991?  Can't remember?  Weren't born yet?  Well,  I remember this day vividly.  I was 20 years old, had a mullet, feathered hair, weighed 185 pounds and was nervously standing in a Sunday School room waiting for my musical cue to walk out with the minister on my wedding day.

21 years later, as I reflect back on the time Beverly and I have been together (plus an additional 5 years of courting) we've learned a lot more about what it takes to make a marriage work.

We had no idea what we were getting into.  That was probably a good thing.  We had to learn about marriage the hard way, which is the same way most people learn about it.  As wonderful as marriage is, no amount of premarital counseling can fully prepare you for what you are about to experience.

Marriage is under attack today.  Our younger generation doubts that a lifelong marriage is possible.  They've seen so much divorce that it seems normal to them.  In one sense, they are right.  Divorce happens.  it happens in the world, and it happens in the church at large. 

God's way is still the best way.  Just like an owners manual for a new car, you take it out of the glove compartment and read it.  The Bible is the "owners manual" for marriage.  marriage just works better when we pay attention to the instructions in God's Word.

Marriage is a gift.  However, we don't always see it that way.  I thought these stories were funny...

• A seven-year-old girl saw the movie Cinderella and was talking with her friends about it afterward.  "I know how it ends," said one, "Cinderella and the Prince live happily ever after."  "Oh no they don't," she replied.  "They got married!"
  
• A young minister performing his first wedding ceremony, feared he might forget something, sought the counsel from an older preacher.  The experienced man told the young minister everything he needed to do and made one final suggestion: "If you ever forget what you are supposed to say, just quote Scripture."  The ceremony went smoothly until he pronounced the happy couple husband and wife.  At that point, his mind went blank.  That's when he remembered the advice of the older preacher to quote Scripture.  So he quoted the only verse that came to his mind: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Marriage is a challenge in the best of circumstances but it can also be a great blessing.  In our society, where healthy marriages are the exception and not the rule, if we can build marriages that move against the prevailing tide, we will have a better base from which to share the message of Jesus Christ with our friends and neighbors.  Nowhere will the difference between Christianity and the modern world be more clearly seen that in a truly Christian marriage.