What God has joined together...

"Mawiage, mawiage is wah bwings us twogever twoday..." The Princess Bride

Five years ago today Roger and I met to join hands in matrimony under the sweltering Arizona sun. The soaring temperatures were abated only by the lush Victorian garden that surrounded us. Close to two hundred friends and family watched, armed with bottled water and fans, as we exchanged vows. At that time I couldn't have possibly comprehended the astounding depth and spiritual relevance of the relationship I was about to partake of. Even now, five years later, I consider myself to be a novice on the topic. However I do believe that God has revealed to me some of the life altering types and principles that lay with in our earthly contract of marriage.





"I wanna talk about me, I wanna talk about I, I wanna talk about number one me my oh my..." Toby Keith

“We are entitled” is the modern cry of our country. What started with the pure thought of liberty has now degraded into a lack of integrity and sadly this deficiency has invaded and even permeated our views of matrimony. The sanctified image of a man and woman before God, vowing their life long love and commitment is irrevocably tainted as those vows prove to be merely empty words, wasted breath, and to some, condemning curses.





“ And the twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.” Mark 10:8

In a world where the health, prosperity, and happiness of ones self is such a high priority I find it odd that the strong principals of self preservation are so severely abandoned as “one flesh” is often torn asunder.





“For we see this the word of promise. She, the bride that a man would choose, is going to reflect his character. It reflects what’s in him.” William Branham

Perhaps this frequent rending of marriages and families really is the surface symptom of a marred character. I believe that our own weaknesses can in fact be our greatest tormentors. And when you see distaste and even hatred between two people who have shared the essence of themselves in marriage one has to wonder if it is their own character reflected back that they hold in such contempt. Perhaps if we can remember this thought we will learn not to judge our spouses negative attributes so harshly.





As we listen to the cry of the world around us and franticly struggle for equality and even superiority we have forgotten that the beauty in marriage comes from yielding. Just as our Heavenly Father yielded up the ghost out of love. We must yield out of love to one another. God did not leave us empty handed. Ephesians five explains beautifully the positions of a husband and wife summing up with

“ Let every one of you in particular love his wife even as him self: and the wife see that she reverence her husband.” Eph 5:33

I believe if we could learn to let go of our entitlements and obey the bread of life that God has given us in his word we will see stronger marriages and fewer families sacrificed in the fruitless pursuit of self.

“You do not fail in obedience through a lack of love, but have lost love because you never
attempted obedience.” C.S. Lewis