Martial Arts
Marriage is an art. One that has almost died out. When God created Eve to be Adam's partner...Do you really think it crossed His mind..."Well, if they argue too much, they can always get a divorce!" Here at The Cross, we don't think so. Marriage is meant to be a sanctified union between husband and wife, the two becoming one in mind and spirit. The Cross takes no credit as to being a marriage counselor but we are here to give help.
The Church honors and treasures the married love between husband and wife. For Christians, marriage mirrors the relationship between Christ and the Church. Thus married love was described by St. Paul as a “great mystery” (Ephesians 5:32) and came to be recognized as one of the seven sacraments.
Marriage, like other vocations, calls us to reflect God’s love to the world in a particular way. Married people in their exclusive and life long commitment to each other witness to and draw strength from how Christ has loved us.
The wedding vows that the couple exchange express what is at the heart of Christian marriage. The words – “for better or worse” – point to the truth that life together will have its challenges as well as its rewards. The grace of the sacrament inspires the couple to turn to the Lord not just in days of happiness but also in times of sorrow, to seek the strength to transform any situation with love and indeed forgiveness.
It is important to state that, while upholding the value of perseverance and the hope of reconciliation, the Church does not demand that anybody remain in a situation that has become impossible.
It tells us in Ephesians, just how we are to treat our spouse. So...where is it confusing...?
Read the following verses...
(21) Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. (22) Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. (23) For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. (24) Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. (25) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (26) to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, (27) and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. (28) In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. (29) After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church (30) for we are members of his body. (31) “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” (32) This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. (33) However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Marriage definitely takes 3...you, your spouse and GOD. With Christ in the center of things...you can't go wrong. Ask each other these simple questions:
1) How does your spouse "fill in your spaces"?
2) In what way can you as a couple can we do a better job of reflecting GOD to others?
3) Do we as a couple or individually truly show other's GOD in our life?
Ok...so you are in the percentage of the unmarried...then ask yourself..."How I better share what GOD is like with those around me"? (ask yourself # 3 above)