On Marriage
November 9th, 2009 by Janette
One year of marriage under my belt and one thing I can say is that I don’t have it figured out! Author Gary Thomas, in an excellent book called Sacred Marriage, writes that “God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy”. While you may claim I’m still slightly “newlywed-ish” (I’m still glowingly happy), I still can see how this is true. Never have I been confronted like in a marriage relationship with my own selfishness, my quick temper, my desire to hide, to please, to shirk responsibility, to seek my identity in anything or one other than God himself. God has used this marriage in my life like nothing else to show me the depth of my sin and brokenness. And at the same time to show me what it means to be forgiven and to be loved in spite of all that. Loved in a way that makes you think that all those things must not be visible to the other person. Marriage is a beautiful picture of the Gospel, and even still it is a shadow.
The question that still remains for me, is how do I bring the Gospel to bear on my marriage? After my wealth of experience in this one year, I can’t answer that question fully. Though we have sought after this, do we have a Gospel-centred marriage? What does that look like exactly? If we were to stay on the trajectory that we are on now, what would our marriage look like in 40 years?
I’m looking forward to the seminars we’re holding on marriage and parenting here at Grace in a couple weeks. The church needs to rise to the challenge and be an integral part of helping people with some of these practical issues in their lives – whether it be when a marriage is on the verge of falling apart or parenting is extremely trying, or just when looking to improve on an already good thing. Where else but the church can we get a Gospel-centred perspective on marriage (and parenting for that matter!)?
