35 PURPOSE TO BE MARRIED FOR LIFE

“Until death do us part,” sounds archaic and traditional. However, that’s exactly what we expect a covenant to be: lifelong.

I was standing at the grocery counter as the twenty-something clerk rang up my groceries. My golf shirt read, “Married for Life.”

“I’m so sorry,” she commented. I was taken back. I couldn’t believe my ears. She was actually feeling bad for me because I was married for life.

“Why are you sorry?” I asked.

“You are stuck with the same person forever. What happens if you get tired of that person?” she mused.

Sadly, this young woman had a cultural bias against marriage. Too many think of marriage as a convenience instead of a commitment for life. If they should get tired of the relationship, they simply trade the present mate in for a new one, much like trading cars.

We need to love one another the same way that God loves us—forever. God loves us no matter what the circumstance or the convenience. He never gives up on us. In loving our mates, we say to them, “I will love you forever!”

Try this: With your mate decide that your marriage is for life, not for the moment. Discuss what you may be doing together five years from now, twenty or even thirty years from now. See yourselves spending all of life loving each other. “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love.”

Jer. 31:3