Strike the Original Match

The last stage of marriage is that period of time when the nest is empty—either empty of the children or of one of the mates—or both. This is a critical stage in the home. All sorts of strange and unpredictable feelings transpire, and we find ourselves in need of stabilizing thoughts and direction.

Everybody gets older whether you admit it or not. The question is, “Will we grow sweeter, or will we rot?” Once all the children have left the nest and two people who honeymooned together 25 or 30 years ago are left to “start over,” how can they resist negative tendencies and stay young at heart? How can they support one another's growth toward spiritual maturity?

In a world where marriage is under attack by pressures outside and inside the Christian church, God’s people cannot abdicate. We have a responsibility to ourselves, to our world, and to our God to stand strong in our marital commitment.

Every which way you turn, the culture, through the ever-present media, launches a new attack on our dedication to the biblical view of marriage. How can Christian marriages survive such onslaughts? Only through commitment. The good old-fashioned hard work of sticking it out!

Like giant containers of volatile gas, money must be managed with great care. Because most of us don’t have more than we need, we must be wise and faithful with what we have. No home can escape the clutches of coin and currency—so we must learn how to implement wise policies of earning, giving, spending, saving, investing, and borrowing.

If the truth were known, not some but most marriages are marked by periodic skirmishes—and occasionally all-out wars! Frequently, marital warfare occurs in the trenches of belligerence or moodiness or both. In this message, we will take a look at why couples fight, as well as the rules that can keep any fight clean, good, and beneficial.

It is a proven fact that each year termites destroy more structures than fire does—but it’s always the fire that makes the headlines, not the termites. This is also true in a marriage. Most homes are not destroyed because of enormous, headline-making fires…but because of the quiet, gnawing, unnoticed, irritating insects who eat away at the troth, or trust, in a relationship year after year.

Immediately upon the mention of the word “honeymoon,” most people picture a time of intimate romance and unrestrained physical affection between newlyweds. But God’s plan is for married couples to enjoy such delights without shame or reluctance until “death do us part.”

God’s plan for renovating a house into a home calls for some specific behaviours and attitudes, which serve as bricks or building blocks for the relationship. Some of these bricks are contributed by the wife and some by the husband. Regrettably, both sets of bricks can be substituted with cheap imitations. These may seem to be adequate and acceptable at first, but over the long haul, they cause great damage.

The reality of crumbling marriages in our world should cause God’s people to stand up and take notice. Thankfully, the Bible provides clear direction regarding the proper materials it takes to build a lasting marriage.