Reason #578
I'm losing it, people. I just realized I numbered two of my days with the same number. Good thing I caught that now rather than later. That's what I get for staying up late every night to do this. I won't lie, I am always nervous to go back in the mornings and re-read what I wrote the night before. I wish they could make a spell check that checked to see if your words actually made sense in the sentence. Anyway, back on track.
Aaron and I went over to have dinner at my parents' house tonight to celebrate my step-grandfather's birthday. After all was said and done, I stood in the kitchen helping my mom with the dishes. Mostly, I just stood there and talked while she did the dishes, but I figure that made it more enjoyable, thus I helped. Anyhow, I shared with her about how my week was going and we talked a little bit about marriage. Tonight, Aaron shared with me that he read an article on suggestions for improving marriage. Now, if you believe in the sanctity of marriage as I do. If you believe that by saying "I do," that's understood as forever, this will shock you. The suggestion to improving marriage was to give out lease agreements to couples rather than marriage licenses. The couples would determine the length of marriage lease they wanted, and at the end of the lease they could re-evaluate whether or not they wanted to continue on or move on to something else. Are you kidding me? Stuff like this makes my blood boil.
I am going to vent here for a second, so forgive my frustrations. I get so sick and tired of this nonchalant view people have of marriage. How people walk away as if it doesn't really matter. How they think leaving is the easy and most effective route. It angers me to hear them say things like, "They just weren't the right one. I didn't really love them. They didn't make me happy. We are better off this way." No, no you aren't. This right here is called selfishness. Walking away is for the faint at heart. Because I am completely convinced that any two people can have an effective marriage, however, each individual has to be an effective spouse. Unfortunately, it appears that the percentage of effective spouses in the majority of today's marriages is 50% or less and I just don't get it. Why is this happening? Is it because we've been raised with an entitled mindset? Is it because people forgot what the word commitment means? Is it because we've grown increasingly lazy over the past few decades and forgot what hard work looks like? Or is it because we care way to much about our own selves than standing up for what is right and being a people of our word?
I could write for days about this. I could go on and on and in the end, it wouldn't really matter. Because I can't control everyone else's actions, and I can't determine the choices they will make. But I can control what I do. I can decide how I will act and how I will choose to live my life. So call me old fashioned, but I am choosing to honor my commitment. I promised the Lord and Aaron that I'd be Aaron's wife until the day I die, and I meant that. And even when we have rough days, which are inevitable when you live with someone one and share every aspect of your life with them, I am going to work through them until we get things back to good. I am going to bend and change and do my best to be the most effective spouse I can be. I am not going to give up and move on. I am never trading him in or replacing him because I chose him. I said yes and I said I do and I meant them both. And maybe, according to the world, it's strange of me to make such a bold declaration so early on, but if I didn't whole heartedly mean these things, I would have never married him in the first place. Because I understand commitment and I understand that any good marriage is made up of two hard workers. I understand that I made a life long promise, and I knew full well what that mean going into it. People say things like "divorce is not even in my vocabulary," and while that's a good and noble thing, it shouldn't even be in your thoughts either. And I'll tell you what, before people get married they need to make that determination for themselves personally. They don't need to decide afterwards. Because deep down if it truly is a possibility for you, do your future spouse a favor and never agree to marry them. Let them be free to move on to someone else who will actually keep their promise to love them forever.
Marriage is a reflection of Christ and the church, and it's sad to see how muddy that reflection has become these days. And while we may see the sanctity of marriage unraveling at the seams, we can do something about it. We don't need the government to help us with this one, and we don't need laws to make things change. No, God's people need to honor their commitment to their spouse and to the Lord. We need to stand up and fight for our marriages, to be the best spouse we can be. When we promised to stay until the end, we need to follow through with it. And no matter what we have to do do fix it, we need to try. We need to pull out every stop, put forth every effort, and not throw in the towel. More than anything, we need to glorify God in everything we do. And if we, God's people, make a commitment to have a marriage that truly glorifies God, and if we make a promise, individually, that we ourselves will glorify God, our marriages will last. Because God honors commitment every time, and if you both uphold your commitment, you can trust that death will be the only thing to do you part.
#578 - Because He honors commitment and He is, too, is eternally committed.
"The Lord will hold you in his hand for all to see— a splendid crown in the hand of God. Never again will you be called “The Forsaken City” or “The Desolate Land.” Your new name will be “The City of God’s Delight” and “The Bride of God,” for the Lord delights in you and will claim you as his bride. Your children will commit themselves to you, O Jerusalem, just as a young man commits himself to his bride. Then God will rejoice over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride." - Isaiah 62:3-5
Aaron and I went over to have dinner at my parents' house tonight to celebrate my step-grandfather's birthday. After all was said and done, I stood in the kitchen helping my mom with the dishes. Mostly, I just stood there and talked while she did the dishes, but I figure that made it more enjoyable, thus I helped. Anyhow, I shared with her about how my week was going and we talked a little bit about marriage. Tonight, Aaron shared with me that he read an article on suggestions for improving marriage. Now, if you believe in the sanctity of marriage as I do. If you believe that by saying "I do," that's understood as forever, this will shock you. The suggestion to improving marriage was to give out lease agreements to couples rather than marriage licenses. The couples would determine the length of marriage lease they wanted, and at the end of the lease they could re-evaluate whether or not they wanted to continue on or move on to something else. Are you kidding me? Stuff like this makes my blood boil.
I am going to vent here for a second, so forgive my frustrations. I get so sick and tired of this nonchalant view people have of marriage. How people walk away as if it doesn't really matter. How they think leaving is the easy and most effective route. It angers me to hear them say things like, "They just weren't the right one. I didn't really love them. They didn't make me happy. We are better off this way." No, no you aren't. This right here is called selfishness. Walking away is for the faint at heart. Because I am completely convinced that any two people can have an effective marriage, however, each individual has to be an effective spouse. Unfortunately, it appears that the percentage of effective spouses in the majority of today's marriages is 50% or less and I just don't get it. Why is this happening? Is it because we've been raised with an entitled mindset? Is it because people forgot what the word commitment means? Is it because we've grown increasingly lazy over the past few decades and forgot what hard work looks like? Or is it because we care way to much about our own selves than standing up for what is right and being a people of our word?
I could write for days about this. I could go on and on and in the end, it wouldn't really matter. Because I can't control everyone else's actions, and I can't determine the choices they will make. But I can control what I do. I can decide how I will act and how I will choose to live my life. So call me old fashioned, but I am choosing to honor my commitment. I promised the Lord and Aaron that I'd be Aaron's wife until the day I die, and I meant that. And even when we have rough days, which are inevitable when you live with someone one and share every aspect of your life with them, I am going to work through them until we get things back to good. I am going to bend and change and do my best to be the most effective spouse I can be. I am not going to give up and move on. I am never trading him in or replacing him because I chose him. I said yes and I said I do and I meant them both. And maybe, according to the world, it's strange of me to make such a bold declaration so early on, but if I didn't whole heartedly mean these things, I would have never married him in the first place. Because I understand commitment and I understand that any good marriage is made up of two hard workers. I understand that I made a life long promise, and I knew full well what that mean going into it. People say things like "divorce is not even in my vocabulary," and while that's a good and noble thing, it shouldn't even be in your thoughts either. And I'll tell you what, before people get married they need to make that determination for themselves personally. They don't need to decide afterwards. Because deep down if it truly is a possibility for you, do your future spouse a favor and never agree to marry them. Let them be free to move on to someone else who will actually keep their promise to love them forever.
Marriage is a reflection of Christ and the church, and it's sad to see how muddy that reflection has become these days. And while we may see the sanctity of marriage unraveling at the seams, we can do something about it. We don't need the government to help us with this one, and we don't need laws to make things change. No, God's people need to honor their commitment to their spouse and to the Lord. We need to stand up and fight for our marriages, to be the best spouse we can be. When we promised to stay until the end, we need to follow through with it. And no matter what we have to do do fix it, we need to try. We need to pull out every stop, put forth every effort, and not throw in the towel. More than anything, we need to glorify God in everything we do. And if we, God's people, make a commitment to have a marriage that truly glorifies God, and if we make a promise, individually, that we ourselves will glorify God, our marriages will last. Because God honors commitment every time, and if you both uphold your commitment, you can trust that death will be the only thing to do you part.
#578 - Because He honors commitment and He is, too, is eternally committed.
"The Lord will hold you in his hand for all to see— a splendid crown in the hand of God. Never again will you be called “The Forsaken City” or “The Desolate Land.” Your new name will be “The City of God’s Delight” and “The Bride of God,” for the Lord delights in you and will claim you as his bride. Your children will commit themselves to you, O Jerusalem, just as a young man commits himself to his bride. Then God will rejoice over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride." - Isaiah 62:3-5
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