What is Marriage?

What is Marriage?

There is more than a simple "I do" to a Christian marriage. It is a beginning of something very good and blessed from the very beginning by God.

A family is like a "brick" in a "brick wall" that is society. If the bricks are brittle the wall will crumble. The love between a man and a woman serves as the glue that will unite the family unit, but the strongest bond is faith in God. There are three to a marriage and not two, man and woman and God and the most important One is God. The greatest blessing you can give to yourselves as a couple is to pray together at least once a day. Breakfast time may be the most important time. Make it simple: Just pray an Our Father together. Later one as it becomes a habit, you may add the concerns you have by praying something like this before you pray the Our Father:

"Lord, we pray for our work today, for my grandma's doctor's appointment, for my dad and mom and every concern in our hearts and we pray as you taught us: Our Father,…"

The spiritual blessing that will give your relationship will be unmeasurable.

We are born into a community and we are community. The unit of the community is the individual who is complete by marriage with their spouse and whose completeness is achieve when the love of two is multiplied by children who represent and are the product of their mutual love. The family unit is complemented by the larger family, by the community in which they live and by the church community they worship in and are part of.

In this society, we are at times taught that we stand alone and that is not the case. Human beings grow spiritually and emotionally in community. The "Lone Ranger" was just that: very lonely.

A couple needs to develop common interests outside of work and that will help them relate better to one another and grow closer as they grow older. It will help them bloom.

Love is described beautifully in 1 Corinthian 13, but remember that all begins with the love of God above it all. The purpose of life is simple: To know, love and serve God. Setting therefore God first in all things then family, then friends and then everything else.

Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-39: "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

If we know where we are going we will be able to get there and as Christians, we know where we are going. We are on our way to heaven. All creation is good and has been redeemed by Christ. Love and sex are a blessing in marriage and it is good.

The love of man and woman is a gift of God to be enjoyed by both.

I was reading the Bible and found this beautiful scripture in the letter of Paul to the Ephesians. If you can make the words your own and you will really appreciate their beauty:

… I bow my knees before the Father,

from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.

I pray that, according to the riches of his glory,
he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being
with power through his Spirit,

and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith,
as you are being rooted and grounded in love.

I pray that you may have the power to comprehend,
with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,
so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able
to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine,

to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations,
forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:14-21(NRSV)

I bolded the part which I think would make a beautiful blessing upon a married couple. It is my recommendation.

One of the scriptures that I think need to be part of a wedding liturgy is in the letter of Paul to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthian 13:

1 If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love,
I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.

2 And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries
and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains
but do not have love, I am nothing.

3 If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over
so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated,

5 it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests
it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,

6 it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.

7 It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never fails. If there are prophecies,
they will be brought to nothing; if tongues,
they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.

9 For we know partially and we prophesy partially,

10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

11 When I was a child, I used to talk as a child,
think as a child, reason as a child;
when I became a man, I put aside childish things.

12 At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,
but then face to face. At present I know partially;
then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.

13 So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthian 13 (NAB)

Recommended readings Ephesians 3:14-21 and 1 Corinthians 1:1-13

Written by Marta
LEAP OF FAITH -http://faithleap.home.att.net