M is for Marriage

is for Marriage.

In the world of relationships, marriage is the most beautiful.

I could write about stability for children, the family unit, or even the benefits society gleans from marriage. And maybe, in a roundabout way, I will.

However, what I want to say is simpler than those and more vital: marriage was designed to first eliminate the extremes of solitude. Love and baby making are good offshoots, but lonely people are not whole people.

God's words were something like, "It is not good for man to be alone."

I teach 7th grade children who, more often than not, come from a broken home; I do not. Yet when I was 13, I remember the palpable feeling of loneliness creeping in. You see, being alone is what a middle-schooler fears the most - I see it every day in the crazy things my students do to fit in. Some don't care one bit how much trouble they're in, as long as their friends accept them. Many times detentions and office referrals move them up the social ladder, not down.

What I felt was desperation; a deep hole opened up and threatened to swallow me. It would taunt me through high school.

Has my marriage solved the loneliness problem completely? Well, no. And some people become more lonely within their marriages than they were single. What gives?

This: the brokenness we carry, we drag into our marriages. We believe it's our spouse's responsibility to fulfill all our needs. As we learn quickly, that is impossible.

Man and woman were meant to partner in specific ways to support the others pursuit of God. When this actually happens in a marriage, the people watching marvel, and the man and wife thrive. It is not good for man to be alone, nor is it good when marriage is perverted to be more or less than it was meant to be.

I strive to lead my wife in service because I love her. I don't always succeed - yet, as he does so much, God is working to make my feeble attempts beautiful in his and our eyes.

Pray for those who are married or who will be married. Pray for your children's marriages. They can and will be beautiful when placed in the right Hands.

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Read more about my theme this April in my intro to the A-Z Blogging Challenge. Or visit the home page here.