The “Wedding Weekend” turned out to be very enjoyable. It was great seeing family. Rose and I had a good time together. One very special part was the homily provided at the wedding. It was very instructive. The talk included some statistics that strongly support the old adage that the family that prays together, stays together. A few years ago these statistics were compiled:
Of all marriages, 50 percent ended in divorce.
Of those marriages performed in church, 35 percent ended in divorce.
Of those marriages in which both parties were still attending church, 2 percent ended in divorce.
Of those marriages in which the couple had regular family devotionals, only 1 in 1105 ended in divorce.
That’s an incredible difference between the general statistics and those of church going and particularly home praying families. Isn’t it time to put that into practice?
We were also provided with some excellent practical advice about what married folks can do, in addition to praying together, to keep their marriage a good one.
1. Pleasure – Making time for things which your partner enjoys. We all have things we enjoy doing. Often after marriage, one or both partners forsakes the things he or she really enjoys or worse the couple seems to forget what they formerly enjoyed doing together. The practice of Agape love, the self-sacrificing love of Jesus, will lead both parties to put the other first and set aside time for fun things together and allow the other for fun things apart.
2. Romance – Intentionally providing romantic times. Walks along the beach, quiet times together, together watching a mutually enjoyable movie. Romance, it isn’t just for the unmarried any more.
3. Saving time and energy for meaningful sexual relationship. On our way home today we had a late breakfast (early lunch) at a little roadside cafe. It was one of those places with fun things hanging from the walls (like wooden dutch shoes) and “cute” signs. One of the signs read: “How is marriage like bath water? It’s not so hot once you get into it.” Marriage, raising children, earning a living all are energy and time absorbers. We can preserve the heat only if we intentionally set aside time for the passion that brought us together.
4. Protecting your partner’s ego. We are told: the two shall become one. But humans have egos and the natural tendency is to put ourselves first and that often means putting our spouse down. We should protect our spouse’s ego as we protect our own
a. avoid sins of the tongue.
b. build up, don’t tear down
c. don’t publicly criticize
d. Complement each day, a new complement each week
Some say that nothing good last forever, but with a lot of prayer (together) and some intentionality we can prove that adage wrong when it comes to marriage.
Be blessed.
Nick
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