Friday, August 21, 2009

Marriage


A couple weeks ago Paul Washer came and spent several days with our church. The majority of the time he talked about marriage. It was so encouraging, I wanted to share it with you.
He said, and I wholeheartedly agree, that marriage is all about our becoming like Christ. The purpose of marriage is to teach us unconditional love.
You can not learn to love unconditionally, if your spouse meets all your conditions.
If he manages money the way you want him to, never leaves his socks and underwear on the bathroom floor, always controls his temper, never watches too much tv, and leads your family in prayer and Bible study every night faithfully-- you wouldn't need to learn how to love like Christ. If your spouse is strong in all the areas you need him to be, you wouldn't need to learn to love unconditionally.

The reason your spouse is weak in the one area you most wanted him to be strong is to teach you how to love unconditionally.

Christ loves us unconditionally. Even in our wickedness. Even with our sinful struggles. Even with all our ugly imperfections, He loves us.
We are undeserving. When we realize how truly unworthy we are of the love and grace God gives us, we can easily give grace and forgiveness to the flawed human He graciously gave us to love.

3 comments:

Jamie Wooddell said...

Very true! And one of the hardest lessons to learn! I mean, really, how hard can it be to learn to pick up your own underwear ;)
I remind myself everyday, while picking up the drawers on the floor, how blessed I am to have a husband. hehehe

Tristan said...

Thanks for the post - it's a great reminder...

Dr. G said...

I couldn't agree with you more. Good reminder!
Kevin and I are apart of a great group that teaches a weekend retreat for engaged couples. Most are required to take the class if they are getting married in the Catholic church.
We give several talks that stress this very thing. I think it is very important for newlyweds and even old timers like us to remember that we have been called to be One with Christ. Looking over these 'small battles' (as we call them at my house) has really helped us to remember why we truly love each other!