10 Reasons I Love Marriage

 

10 years ago I married Christine Lind.  10 years ago we went from two people from different families to one flesh that were two atoms of a new family. 

Being married is many things and so many will say that being married is work or is hard or is sacrifice.  Those things are true, some days more true than others, but I hope that's not the first thing you think marriage is.  Marriage is so many things including a picture of Christ and the Church but I want to tell you that marriage is, in the words of the theologian Tony the Tiger, GRREEAT!

I love being married to Christine and I can't imagine my life without her.  I think those of us that love being married need to say so more often.  Marriage is not for wimps, but it is so good.  Marriage has had an awful P.R. campaign over the last many years and I just want to give you ten of the many reasons I love being married.

10 Awesome Benefits of Marriage

1) You Get Someone to Play With

Board games, inside jokes, goofy looks at supper... there is something so great about having a sleepover with your friend that goes on indefinitely.

2) Someone to Watch With

Movies are a shared experience and it's great getting to watch and discuss, watch and laugh along together, watch and look to see if they're tearing up.  I love when we sit side-by-side and watch a couple episodes of The Office together before bed.

3) Kids

Hopefully you get the chance to make babies or adopt kids into your family.  A marriage is the germ of a larger organism.  Some marriages don't expand into this larger unit but most get to and God designed marriage to do this.  One of my greatest joys is having kids with Christine.

4) You Get a Ministry Partner

Two equally yoked can pull so much more.  In marriage you get a partner to give you the power of synergy in your ministry.  My wife and I have been foster parents.  I could not and would not do that alone.  It's amazing that I have a partner who wants to take risks for the Kingdom with me.  She and I partner to accomplish.

5) Free Kisses

You get to kiss and be kissed by someone that digs you.  Marriage gives you someone that loves and desires to do what God has designed in the arena that God ordained it for.  You are free to express yourself physically with someone that wants you to.

6) You Get Support on Blah Days

There are days when life just doesn't fire on all cylinders.  There are terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days. In marriage you get someone to lean on and cry on.  My wife has been there for me on days when I just felt off, on days when my family has experienced death, on days when I just didn't feel good enough.  We all need that support and it's been indispensable.

7) You Get Someone to Say Things You Can't Say to Others

There are inside thoughts that feel the need to come out and just shouldn't.  Your spouse can hear those and not hate you.  There are thoughts you're working out that aren't yet for public consumption; your spouse can hear those unfiltered things.  This isn't encouragement to be gossiping or crude.  This is about having that safe person to speak to and say things that you need to say.

8) Consistency

Marriage is until death do us part.  That's consistency.  The world around you may change, you may move, the kids will move out, your job may go away, but he/she won't.  In a world of flux it's great to have a north star.

9) You Have Someone That Believes in You

Haters and doubters abound.  We all need someone that is on our team, in our cheering section and genuinely has a high view of us. We need someone that refuses to let us beat ourselves up and believe the lies we think about ourselves.  My wife believes more in me than I do in myself.

10) You Can Become a Patriarch and Matriarch 

This is one goal my wife and I talk about often.  We want to have grey heads and watch a bunch of cousins playing.  We want to be the patriarch and matriarch of a family.  We want our ideals to outlive us.  My family has a bi-annual reunion that features fun, enjoyment of one another and a time of worship together and I love it.  My other side doesn't have that.  The difference is that Grandma and Grandpa Ray stayed together through thick and thin.  We want this and only marriage can give this to us.

I love being married and especially love that I'm married to Christine.  Marriage deserves to be celebrated and I will do that today.

Small Church, Big Encouragement

 Have you ever envied the big church on the other side of town?  You know, the church in the suburb or the one in the big city?  The one with fifteen paid staff members, the one with the first-class tech team, the one with the huge youth group, the one with the coffee shop built into the lobby.  And here you are.  You're serving in a small church.  Your church building doesn't even have a lobby.  Your pastor is bi-vocational and you're the youth volunteer who works 50 hours week at your real job and has four kids at home.

There are times when we look at what the other congregation has and what we don't have and, quite frankly, we feel like quitting or at least like God's going to need to perform a miracle for your church's ministry to make a difference for the Kingdom.

In these moments we don't need a bigger budget or role of members.  In these moments we need good theology.

That might not sound encouraging, but let me assure you that it is.  Let me introduce you to the word "y'all".  Some of you even north of the Mason-Dixon don't need an introduction, but y'all is the great word that means "all of you guys" to you northern folks.  If there's one southern word that the NIV, ESV, NRSV or KJV could use it is "y'all".

In the passage below let me show you a taste of "Y'all Theology" that is sure to be a big encouragement to small churches.  I will simply replace a you (meant to be plural and not singular) with "y'all" to help you see something great.

"To the church of God that is in Corinth (or place your community here), to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

Grace to y'all and peace from our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I give thanks to my God always for y'all because of the grace of God that was given y'all in Christ Jesus, that in every way y'all were enriched in Him in all speech and all knowledge--- even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among y'all --- so that y'all are not lacking in any gift, as y'all wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain y'all to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God is faithful, by who y'all were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." 1 Corinthians 1:2-9. Matt's Southern English Standard Version

Did you catch the encouragement for your small church?

Verse 5 and 6 tell us that y'all in Janesville or Waverly or Holden or Smithtown or Springville or wherever you are, have all you need. "... in every way y'all were enriched in Him in all speech and all knowledge... so that y'll are not lacking in any gift..."

You personally do not have every spiritual gift you need to complete the task of converting dead souls and sustaining souls to the end guiltless.  But your local church body has all y'all need.

This is amazing!  God has given y'all every spiritual gift you need.  God gave the megachurch all the spiritual gifts they need, too.  Your church has the people in leadership, staff and volunteer roles that in the grace of God through Jesus Christ y'all need.  Read 1 Corinthians 1:2-9 again to see it for yourself.  Paul confirmed this truth to a rather messed up body of believers in Corinth and it is without a doubt true for your small church today.

This doesn't mean we aren't to grow and develop our gifts or to even hire more staff people.  No, this means that for the tasks your local church has in front of it today the grace to fulfill those tasks is right within y'all because of Christ.

So, the next time you're tempted, like I am, to envy the bigger church done the road remember this passage.  Thank God for the way He's enriched that big church.  Pray for their ministry to be even more fruitful and God-honoring.  Then thank God for all the ways He's blessed and enriched your local body and ask Him to reveal how y'all can use your perfectly placed gifts to serve, defend and expand the Kingdom of your God today.