1/2 marathon Challenge, Day 7

As I’ve said, when I was going through counseling I did a lot of research and reading on marriage in general and Christian marriage in particular. I studied just about anything I could get my hands on about relationships. Of course, book knowledge was not going to help me or truly change my heart. The experience brought me closer to God though, and by his grace my heart did change and my marriage did improve. With hope on the horizon, I looked forward but I still had all this information I collected. As I’ve said it was my counselor who suggested I make use of it, not for my benefit but for that of others. That led me to start writing a marriage article for our monthly church bulletin. Seeking to get the word out to a wider audience, I started posting the articles in a facebook group, and created this blog as well. I think it is extremely important for couples who have “been around the marriage block” to share their experiences and what they have learned with younger couples, and act as marriage mentors. Throughout the new testament we are called to be in community with one another as the only real way God can be experienced; his love that he extends to us is to be shared with others, our brothers and sisters in Christ especially so. We are called to ‘be devoted to one another” (Romans 12:10) “bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2) and to “teach and admonish one another” (Colossians 3:16). Parents by and large have let school curriculums teach “the birds and the bees.” Churches have in the past tended to shy away from frank open discussions about sex and marriage. Where are young people, newlyweds, or ANYone for that matter supposed to find out what God’s plan is for them in relationships or as a married couple? Reticence by those people and institutions in our society on these subjects has left our culture in control of what our young people learn, on what is deemed acceptable and we wonder why we are in the mess we are in. The greatest thing about taking part in this bloggers challenge for me has been see so many people writing about God’s plans for relationships, sex, and marriage. I hope that everyone who is writing and reading is also taking the time to nurture real world relationships with couples in their churches and communities in which the love of God and the Word of God is being shared. That is the source of course... God’s word, his love, the good news! With that as our ammunition, may we all help foster Godly marriages in our homes, our neighborhoods, our churches and our towns. Ephesians 4:14-16 says: Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Since Christ’s love for the church is compared to a marriage, and the reconciliation of God with Creation is described as a wedding, it is vitally important that we as his people do our best to make our marriages and the marriages around us Godly, to be that picture of His love.

http://www.upliftingmarriage.com/12-marathon-blog-challenge/