Marriage was ordained by God following creation.
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.
Genesis 2: 18-24, NLT
So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.
“At last!” the man exclaimed.
“This one is bone from my bone,
and flesh from my flesh!
She will be called ‘woman,’
because she was taken from ‘man.’”
This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.
Marriage was a gift from our Creator. In a healthy relationship, both husband and wife can grow, learn from each other, raise a healthy family, and serve God together. An unhealthy relationship, however, can be an endless source of frustration, hostility, and even fear. Failed or failing marriages also cause damage to children that can persist well in to the future.
A good marriage doesn’t simply happen on its own; it requires work on both sides. It also requires the right mind-set. For example, many people marry in order to fulfill some need and to be loved. This is faulty thinking. Marriage is NOT about getting your needs fulfilled or being loved – it is about making a commitment to another person to care for them, serve them, and demonstrate love through actions. Love is not a feeling – it is an action and a mindset. When both husband and wife adopt this mindset, the result is a strong marriage.
A good marriage also requires both spouses to put God first in the marriage. So many married couples consider their spouse to be the most important person in their lives. This puts the spouse in the impossible position of being God. Your spouse cannot meet all of your needs and will fail you at some point. By putting God first, your marriage will be stronger and healthier. (For more on this topic, please see the article under the “Why Jesus?” section called Take All of Me.)
In this section, we will be including several articles that are designed to help you negotiate the sometimes rocky seas of marriage and create a marriage that will thrive in the good times and the bad.
8 Key Elements of Marital Love
Fight or Flight – the Marriage Killer: 7 Secrets to Resolving Conflict
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Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.