Good Marriages Don't Just Happen

Love is blind but marriage is a real eye opener.
It is amazing what a difference a few years make. The Wedding Day is filled with joy and expectation—its a day full of memories, soft candles, beautiful music, rings exchanged, and promises made. Then...the marriage begins.

Joe Aldridge, in his book, Secrets to Inner Beauty, writes this, “When two imperfect people fall in love strange things happen. Logic and rationality go out the window, blindness sets in. Overcome with ecstatic paralysis they float away on their cloud built for two. Marriage, however, has a way of ending this glowing period of simulated perfection. It doesn’t take long for the newlyweds to discover that everything in one person nobody’s got. They soon learn that a marriage license is just a learner’s permit.”

One of the passages of Scripture that is read at almost every wedding is 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Its chosen because it is so poetic but I wonder if we really listen to it. Let’s hear it today. Lets unpack it so that we can be more intentional about our marriages—because, Good Marriages Don’t Just Happen.

1 Cor 13:4-8a (NIV) “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

From this passage we get 6 things to work on to help make our marriage great:

1. Good marriages require Consideration.
1 Cor 13:4 (NIV) “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.”
Eph 4:2 (NIV) “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”

2. Good marriages require Compromise
1 Cor 13:5 (NIV) “It is not rude, it is not self-seeking...”
1 Cor 13:5 (LB) "... Love does not demand its own way."

3. Good marriages require Communication.
1 Cor 13:5 (NIV) “...it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”
Prov 18:21 (NIV) “The tongue has the power of life and death...”
Prov 12:18 (NIV) “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”

4. Good marriages require Christ.
1 Cor 13:6 (NIV) “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.”
John 14:6 (NIV) “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

5. Good marriages require Commitment.
1 Cor 13:7 (NIV) “It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
Malachi 2:16 (GN)"`I hate divorce,' says the Lord ... `Make sure that you do not break your promise to be faithful…”

6. Good marriages require Courtship.
1 Cor 13:8a (NIV) “Love never fails.”
Proverbs 5:19 (NCV) “...Let her love always make you happy; let her love always hold you captive.”
Ecc 9:9 (Msg) “Relish life with the spouse you love Each and every day of your precarious life. Each day is God’s gift...Make the most of each one!”

Harvard University did a study and discovered that the divorce rate in America is 1 out of every 3 marriages. However, when a couple is married in a church ceremony, attend church regularly, pray together, and read the Bible together, the divorce rate drops to 1 out of 1,105 marriages. That's the difference Christ makes.

The key to fellowship with your mate, joy with your mate, is that both of you live in God's presence. When we are committed to Christ and our spouse is committed to Christ, it will naturally draws us closer together. Spiritual harmony & spiritual oneness brings about emotional oneness.

It is true that good marriages don't just happen but they certainly CAN happen! I hope your's is one of them! :)