Lovely Weddings

Most weddings are described as "lovely" or "beautiful." A wonderful wedding ceremony is no accident. It is the result of many hours of careful planning, organization and attention to detail. That is as it should be.

However, we have parents who spend hundreds of hours to prepare for their child’s wedding who have never spent ten minutes preparing that child for marriage. Perhaps that is why we have "lovely weddings" and terrible marriages. If we would spend time teaching our children about the duties and privileges of marriage, we would have fewer broken homes, broken hearts, and emotionally scarred children. Instead, we invest several months and thousands of dollars in a thirty-minute ceremony which does not produce a marriage that lasts thirty months. Would it not be better to have hastily arranged ceremonies than hastily arranged marriages?

Am I arguing for sloppy weddings? Of course not! They can be pleasant, inspiring, and encouraging, and that is good, but should we not also give serious thought to marriage itself?

A good marriage, like a beautiful wedding, is no accident, either. As there are certain laws or rules that one must follow to have a productive garden, so there are principles that must guide the marital relationship (Proverbs 31:10-31; Ephesians 5:22-33; 6:1-4; Colossians 3:18-21; 1 Peter 3:1-12). One may ignore God’s laws of nature and refuse to tend his garden. When he does so, he will have a great crop of ugly weeds. So, one may not abide by God’s formula for the family. When he does so, he will produce frustration, unhappiness, bitter tears, sorrow, pain and agony. If divine principles do not rule one’s home, sinful ones will!

Is your marriage as lovely as was your wedding?

-Larry Ray Hafley

Football Fever

In the midst of football season, it is very easy for us to find ourselves taking glory in the loss of one team under the craft and devices of another. It is exciting to know that because one team has failed to achieve victory, another may very well be profited. This is the case because rarely is it the victorious team’s success that we’re so grateful for, but it is the demise of the other.

While I understand that it’s the design of the ranking system that brings about such emotions, I can’t help but contrast it to the spiritual charge that we’ve been given. Often we take the faults and failures of others as a mark on our charts of success. Somehow, sometimes, we are able to see their mistakes as a veil for our shortcomings, as if God sorts his "good" list by fewest mistakes.

We need to realize that no good comes from indecently focusing on the sins of others (Matthew 7:3), but that justification comes from doing the will of our Father in heaven (Matthew 7:21). Never will slips of a sinner anchor us to gates of heaven, nor will the stumbling of a brother stand us tall in the ranks of God’s army.

The only good that comes from another’s error is the chance to introduce him to the redemptive grace of God. Let us all strive daily in these efforts.

-Jason Budd