The 3 Biggest Secrets For Staying Married For Life
By: Angie Lewis
Managing your marriage doesn’t have to be difficult. It takes a few initiatives on your part to get yourself into the proper prospective of how marriage really works. Marriage is about living your purpose and attaining your goals that are related to that purpose.
1. Marriage Takes Team Players
Marriage takes team players working together to accomplish the same objectives. It doesn’t matter what those goals are, but what does matter is how you play the game. For an example, a wife should not go her own way, and not consider her husband and the husband should not go his own way without considering his wife. What is that anyway? That’s not the intention of Gods design for marriage. I think that’s downright selfishness.
In marriage there is no room for selfish actions. Each spouse should look for ways to build each other up for the good of the marriage. When you work with your spouse, helping them and encouraging them when they need it, you are helping the marriage to become all that it can be. Do you realize that marriage is a gift from God?
God gave Adam and Eve the gift of each other. Eve was a beautiful sight to behold for Adam and the marriage was consummated when he became one in flesh with her. The gift to us is that a man will leave his parents so he can be united to his wife, and become one in the sexual joining together with her. This is what marriage is!
If you could imagine for moment, the person you married as a gift from God, then your actions would begin to work towards building up the gift you have been blessed with, instead of doing things that would tear down the gift and damage the marriage union.
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Genesis 2:22-24
2. Marriage Takes Commitment
In marriage commitment is finishing what you start? When you stand at the altar, making promises and stating your vows to the person you love that is the starting point for your commitment to stay married for life?
How well you keep those promises and vows shows your level of commitment to the marriage. Are you still married to your first love? Commitment is not difficult to achieve when we make marriage an important aspect of our life.
We can follow God’s design meant for marriage or we can follow the flawed design of society.
The culture of today has shown us how to throw marriage aside as if it means nothing. But God’s intention for marriage is a commitment for life. At the beginning of the world God created the union of marriage between a man and a woman to be permanent until death. Treat your gift with the commitment it deserves.
3. Marriage Takes Respect
Respecting the person you married takes action. Respect is submission, humility and appreciation all rolled into one. The flawed view of this is that couples believe these things need to be earned. Earning points to be treated with respect is wrong. This is what conditional love is all about. But God’s design for marriage is based upon unconditional love for each other. Submission is voluntarily cooperating with your spouse out of love and respect for them.
…God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:5-6
Bottom line is if you work together, commit yourselves to the marriage and respect one another the devil cannot come in and devour your marriage.
Angie Lewis writes on subjects such as love, sex, and intimacy between couples. Her marriage books center on the biblical foundations that God outlines for couples to follow for an exceptional marriage. Angie writes numerous articles and e-books covering such issues as adultery, addictions, temptation, and forgiveness in marriage.
Angie writes a weekly column for EzraWeb.com and a monthly column for “Keepin On” Christian magazine. Check out Angie’s website for additional information about her books and online marriage ministry. http://www.heavenministries.com