The "sacred bonds" of marriage are being challenged by groups of people who desire to change the very nature of the family structure. Traditionally, marriage is understood to be between a man and a woman. Those challenging this bedrock of an honorable, human society want to broaden its meaning to include homosexual, lesbian relationships, polygamy, and personal arrangements (what was once called "shacking-up together").
Marriage began back in the Garden of Eden, the paradise into which God placed His first created human. He saw Adam?s loneliness and took from his side a rib from which He formed Adam?s wife Eve.
God created the marriage relationship for the purpose of intimate, monogamous relationships. Marriage is also the avenue for procreation. Two are bonded together in love for a lifetime. In this most intimate relationship of bonding two become one flesh.
The Enterprise-Journal newspaper in McComb had a beautiful announcement recording a long-time marriage commitment of a man and a woman to each other.
In the Wednesday, March 1st edition, we learned about the 73rd wedding anniversary of Hampton and Jimmie Burries. I?m sure this couple faced trying times through the years. But evidently their commitment to each other and to the sacredness of their marriage has prevailed. We should all salute the Burris couple for their example to their children, their church, their community, and to all of us who seeks for the same results in our marriages.
The bond of marriage isn?t an invention of the state although it now has the legal authority for its regulation. It began in the early hours of God?s created order. One might desire to argue the point but ultimately the argument would return us to Adam and Eve.
The world has tried to cheapen marriage by dividing the very bonding which holds it together. Since our culture in America provides for the ultimate plan of God in a marriage, which is commitment, we aren?t given to whomever a family head chooses. Love between a male and a female grows into a personal and public acknowledgment of their commitment. They place on each other?s finger a ring symbolizing that commitment which announces to all who sees it that they belong for life to the love of their life.
One of the most intimate emotional relationships enjoyed by a married couple is their sexual relationship. But the devil and the world has so cheapened that relationship so sexual activity has become classified in the larger amoral society as "recreational activity". They have led millions I would guess into the pits of troubled lives and broken homes by persuading men and women to accept the lie which says sexual activity is just a feel-good-at-the-moment-expression rather than a deep, emotional commitment of life to one who has accepted their love.
Too many marriages occur to satisfy the God-given sex drive. The potential for such a marriage to succeed is minimum. Monogamy becomes boring, new highs are desired, outward beauty becomes a driving force, and age diminishes the drive. The mortar of sexual gratification crumbles under the weight of difficulty and time.
Successful marriages, like the Burris couple?s example, are built through day by day building blocks. Some of our modern young folk, accustomed to having everything and having it their way, are unable to deal with disagreements and sharing. With the first argument, they rush back home. Those aren?t building blocks, they are stumbling stones.
oj@christian.net
Name: Odus Jackson
