Thursday, September 23, 2010

Respost from September 2007 - Sacred Marriage

I am reading a wonderful book titled "Sacred Marriage" by Gary Thomas. I highly recommend it. It is very well written and a fairly easy read. I wanted to share an excerpt with you this morning. 

"One of the best wedding gifts God gave you was a full-length mirror called your spouse. Had there been a card attached, it would have read "Here's to helping you discover what you are really like." quote by Gary and Betsy Ricucci.

"What is humility? Fenelon tells us "It is a certain honesty and childlike willingness to acknowledge our faults, to recover from them and to submit to the advice of experienced people; these will be solid useful virtues, adapted to your sanctification." We must not enter marriage predominantly to be fulfilled, emotionally satisfied or romantically charged , but rather to become more like Jesus Christ. We must embrace the reality of having our flaws exposed to our partner, and thereby having them exposed to us as well. Sin never seems quite as shocking when it is known only to us; when we see how it looks or sounds to another it is magnified ten times over. The single or celibate can "hide" frustration by removing himself or herself from the situation, but the married man or women has no true refuge. It is hard to hide when you share the same bed.."

Isn't that the truth? We all are sinful creatures, but tend in marriage to point the finger or get into a pattern of blaming our partner. We should first examine ourselves and see where our own sin lies. Whether it be a critical spirit, an angry heart, addiction, etc., we need to first focus on our own sin and repentance because our job is to become more like Christ. We are not in control of our partners' behavior. We are ultimately only responsible for ourselves when we stand before Christ on judgment day. Trust me, I lived the life of blaming another for many years. Guess what, it didn't change anything. Maybe the problem lies within ourselves.......