1/2 Marathon Challenge, Day 9

Being part of a community is vital, for keeping one another accountable, for bearing each other’s burdens, for loving one another. Even more important though is having God at the center. I am an sometime artist as well as a writer, and I have taken to drawing what I call “nuptial knots” where I wind together different lines for a married couple’s initials... one line each for the husband and wife’s first names, and a bigger line for the couple’s last name. Around the twining letters I always write my favorite biblical verse about marriage. Ecclesiastes 4:12 says

A three-fold cord is not easily broken

I don’t know if Solomon had marriages specifically in mind when he penned this line, but given that he also wrote the Song of Songs, i’ll bet he at least thought about it. I take a three-fold cord to mean “man, woman, and God” and that is a union that indeed, is not easily broken. Pastor T.D Jakes produced a movie with that name, on that very topic. When both husband and wife are focused on God’s will for their life, individually and as a couple, the chances for failure plummet, and the chances for wild success go through the roof! When both spouses take to heart all the Biblical commands of how they are to act within marriage, and embrace them... I’ll be bold and say that marriage will. not. fail. Is the wife submitting to her husbands lead? is she respecting him? Is the husband continually dying to himself, and sacrificing his own needs so that his wife’s needs are fulfilled? Are they both challenging each other to confess sin and repent? Are they praying for each other more than for themselves?

With God at the center of a marriage, there can be no “irreconcilable differences” that are so often listed as the reason for a divorce.

That's the "D" "B" and "C" I did for my own marriage. (Diane and Brian Collis) You can view others here:

http://www.coroflot.com/sojourner/Nuptial-Knots

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