We recently had a Couples’ Night event on the 28th of July and my eyes were opened to scriptural and practical truths when Pastor Bong talked about Building a Strong Marriage. Even the truths I already knew but didn’t pay much attention to were reinforced and reestablished.
One truth is that God is the Architect of marriage; it is His design. I knew this but didn’t really look at its practical implication. Now I see the need to go to God as we identify the things that don’t look right in our marriage. We need to run to the Architect of marriage since God is the giver of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. He is our go-to Authority, not our parents, not our BFFs, and definitely not social media.
Psalm 127:1 says, “Unless the Lord builds the house those who labor build in vain.” If we are to build a strong, Christ-centered family, this is one truth we cannot afford to forget.
Leaving my parents to be joined together in union with my husband does not in any way mean that I should abandon or ignore them. It only means severing the ties of tight emotional dependency I had towards them before I got married. You see, once we get married, our parents take a back seat. While we continue to honor them, they do not come before our spouses.
I used to be very insecure with enough skeletons in my closet to drive anyone and any man away, so I acted and pretended. When I got married, all pretenses vanished into thin air. Becoming ‘one flesh’ with our spouse is more than just physical union. It’s not having anything hidden between you two. You love each other without a hidden agenda and despite your imperfections – because that’s how the Architect designed it.
“For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24.
I couldn’t agree more with what Peter Marshall said, “Marriage is not a federation of two sovereign states. It is a union– domestic social spiritual physical. It is a fusion of two hearts– the union of two lives– the coming together of two tributaries, which, after being joined in marriage, will flow in the same channel in the same direction… carrying the same burdens of responsibility and obligation.”