BiblicalInsights.net

     Marriage–The Promise
     “The playwright Thornton Wilder said it well: I didn’t marry you because you were perfect.  I didn’t marry you even because I loved you.  I married you because you gave me a promise.  That promise made up for your faults.  And the promise I gave you made up for mine.  Two imperfect people got married and it was the promise that made the marriage.  And when our children were growing up, it wasn’t a house that protected them; and it wasn’t our love that protected them–it was that promise.”  (Ravi Zacharias, I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah, p. 45).  Many are afraid of commitment.  They believe that they can have a lasting relationship without it.  This is not true.  In marriage, we take a sacred vow and make a promise “to have and to hold” “until death do us part.”  We must keep that promise.  Jesus said, “Wherefore they are  no more twain, but one flesh.  What therefore God hath joined together, let  not man put asunder” (Matt. 19:6).  Keeping the “lock” in wedlock depends upon meeting the responsibility of a commitment to another person made in a sacred promise.
     Marriage–The Service of Love
     “If the first thing about committing the will is that it is a death to yourself, what comes to life is a disposition that seeks to serve.  The one who serves does so with kindness and gentleness.  This is something we almost never think of anymore, that we are called to the service of love.  We are so prone to lay claim to our rights that we bury the demand that calls us to serve.  Our love story shows us in a simple act the beauty of service that has at its heart a kind spirit.” (Zacharias, I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah, p. 49).
     Marriage–Lovingkindness
     The Hebrew word translated “lovingkindness” is hesed.  It is the covenantal term for God’s love.  Hesed is the unmerited and generous favor of God.  It is a love that is gentle and always reaching out to the object of that love.  Old Testament scholar Daniel Block describes hesed as “that quality that moves a person to act for the benefit of another without respect to the advantage that it might bring to the one who expresses it…(This) quality is expressed fundamentally in action rather than word or emotion” (Zacharias, I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah, p. 51).
     Marriage-Sense of Humor

     Love is like an onion–
     You taste it with delight,
     But when it’s gone you wonder
     Whatever made you bite.
     Love is a funny thing, just like a lizard,
     It curls up ’round your heart and then jumps into your gizzard.’
     Love is swell, it’s so enticing,
     It’s orange gel, it’s strawberry icing,
     It’s chocolate mousse, it’s roasted goose,
     It’s ham on rye, it’s banana pie.
     Love’s all good things without a question;
     In other words, it’s indigestion.
            (Zacharias, I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah, p. 10)