Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy National Marriage Week! I wasn’t going to blog this week…I told myself I am way too busy keeping up with my paying job to bother with putting inspirational messages out into the world (for which I’m not getting paid). But I know my husband religiously reads my blog along with several of my friends and family (thank you!!) so I decided it was worth taking a break to publicly thank God for the gifts of love and marriage. I believe in the holy sacrament of marriage with all my heart and soul, although I’ll admit going on ten years of marriage that some days are hard. Some days it seems like it would be easier to just be single and not have to worry about finances, kids, grandkids, parents, in-laws, commitments, obligations, responsibilities, etc. etc. But I know down deep in my heart that marriage in the long run not only makes us stronger but makes us BETTER. I have friends who “live together†with their partners and while I would never pass judgement on them, I always say a silent prayer for them that one day perhaps they will go “all in†and get married. Because that’s what marriage is…going ALL IN. For better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and health, til death do you part. God tells us exactly how He wants us to live and love:
Genesis 1:18, 27-28: “The LORD God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him…So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…â€
Matthew 19:4-6 “Haven’t you read,†he (Jesus) replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.â€
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12: “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?…Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.â€
Romans 13:8: “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.â€
1 Corinthians 13:2-13: “If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance…And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.â€
1 John 4:7-16: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love…And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.â€
Ephesians 4:2: “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.â€
1 Peter 4:8: “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.â€
Proverbs 3:3-4 “Do not let love and fidelity forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. Then will you win favor and esteem before God and human beings.â€
1 Peter 1:22 “Since you have purified yourselves by obedience to the truth for sincere mutual love, love one another intensely from a pure heart.â€
I am grateful for all of you who take the time to read and respond to these Inspirations…for all of the loving relationships in my life…and I am especially grateful God gave me the man He did to be my husband.
Thank you God for giving us your precious gifts of love and marriage. Please help us take the time to cherish them…and each other…each and every day.
