Are You Thinking of Marriage?

To our beloved Grandchildren --

On August 27, 2013 -- if Gramp and I live that long -- we will celebrate fifty years of marriage. I am writing this because we live in a culture where about half of the marriages end up in divorce.  That is so sad because we know that marriage is meant to be between a man and a woman for life -- that was God's plan and it is still His plan. But people really mess up and I don't know all the reasons for marriages not lasting "til death parts you".

One of the things that people do wrong is that they don't have a realistic view of marriage to start with! Marriage is not a continual romantic trip. A GOOD marriage is a result of VERY hard work. It is a result of people understanding that THEY are not the center of the universe. In marriage you love, you share, you forgive, you set good goals, and most of all you invite someone else into your relationship -- that someone else is the LORD.

When I was a teenager someone very wise told me: "you cannot help who you fall in love with." But you CAN HELP who you spend time with. And while you aren't always on an active HUNT to find a husband or wife, you can rule out certain types as friends of the opposite sex. The red flags should go up when another person who: 1. Is not a Christian (a true believer in the Lord Jesus) or is a Christian who does not put the Lord and His will ahead of himself or herself; 2. Always wants his or her own way; 3. Never or rarely puts YOU first; 4. Makes fun of you, calls you names, or makes you feel threatened or belittled; 5. Does not treat your parents courteously or talks about them critically or with contempt (after all, they are why YOU are here in the first place).
For me, one of the most important things was to know that my MOM approved of the guy that I would marry -- so something interesting happened when Grampie asked me to marry him. Read on: