Topics:<\/b> Companionship; Marriage; Relationships; Self-centeredness<\/p>\n
References:<\/b> John 13:1\u201317; Ephesians 5:22\u201333; 1 John 3:16\u201318<\/p>\n
A man had been dating a woman for several years, and she was wondering if they would ever marry. He told me he didn\u2019t know if he could marry her because she didn\u2019t make him happy.<\/p>\n
I asked him why not, which was a mistake. He explained all the reasons why she didn\u2019t make him happy.<\/p>\n
Finally, I interrupted and asked, \u201cWhat kind of wife would make you happy?\u201d The more he described what he was looking for in a wife, the more convinced I became that what he really needed was a goldfish, the pretty kind with the long tail that floats around. A goldfish just looks pretty and doesn\u2019t ask you to communicate. It doesn\u2019t ask you how your day was or expect you to listen to how its day was. The last thing he needed was a wife, because his whole understanding of why the world existed was to meet his needs.<\/p>\n
A wife or husband will not meet your needs, but neither will friends, the church, or even a fish. You have needs that are important and ought to be met. But for that, you will have to pray to God, who alone can be your Savior when it comes to human need. Then you can be useful to the people around you.<\/p>\n
\u2014M. Craig Barnes, in the sermon \u201cLearning to Speak Multiculturally,\u201d National Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C. (October 3, 1999)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Topics: Companionship; Marriage; Relationships; Self-centeredness References: John 13:1\u201317; Ephesians 5:22\u201333; 1 John 3:16\u201318 A man had been dating a woman for several years, and she was wondering if they would ever marry. He told me he didn\u2019t know if he could marry her because she didn\u2019t make him happy. I asked him why not, which … Continue reading “GOLDFISH
\n WIFE”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6024\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}