A Courageous Vow

For Husband and Wife ( Day 2 of 18 )
JUST SHARING (from the “Couple’s Devotional Bible”)
This article’s author: Ernest Boyer
Bible Passage: 1 Chronicles 22:6-13

Key Verse: 1 Chronicles 22:13

“… Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”

Marriage is the most remarkable and most courageous of all human acts – the promise of two human beings to share life together on all levels, physical, economic, spiritual – a promise made in the face of the certainty of death, the certainty of change and the uncertainty of everything else. There is nothing else we might choose to do that is quite like this act, nothing so foolish or so profound.

Much of marriage is a struggle. One of the partners may buckle under the strain and need to lean against the other for support. Later the role may be reversed and the other partner may need to be carried by the first. In these periods the one doing the supporting may begin to think, “I am not being helped by this person, only held back.” But because of that foolish, extraordinary marriage vow, he or she keeps going.

Both partners see two of their spouse’s many faces – that of the afflicted and that of the comforter of the afflicted. And only after seeing both of those faces on the same person and knowing that they themselves had worn them as well, can each begin to really understand the nature of the divine. Love matures through the ordinary pains and sharing of day-to-day life into a love very close to God’s own.

MARRIAGE BUILDERS

• How has your love for each other, and for God, been deepened as a result of persevering through past struggles in your marriage?

• Which one of you needs the most help now, and how can the other best provide the help that is needed?

Additional Scripture Readings: Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; 1 Corinthians 13:7; Philippians 2:3-7