Marriage is Hard Work and Fun!
Marriage is hard work. Just ask Ray — and me. Marriage is also worth it. You can ask Ray and me again. We agree about that, too. Sometimes it takes months or years or decades to figure out how to live together joyfully. It’s worth it.
I was recently saddened by an article about what its author called the pain of monogamy. Excuse me? Let’s talk about the pain of promiscuity or adultery or polygamy or divorce or broken families.
It breaks my heart that people believe articles like that. Sometimes a Christian who should know better believes them because he or she is in a particularly difficult time in his or her marriage or because of a current temptation to — let’s use an old fashioned descriptive word here — cheat on his or her spouse. People who have not committed themselves to following Jesus believe messages like that because they either don’t know better, or because the ideas in such articles line up with what they want to do.
Many Christians are familiar with God’s statement in Malachi:
“For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel . . .
Malachi 2:16
The verse before it speaks to the heart issue behind the supposed “pain of monogamy.”
Be careful then about your spirit,
and see that none of you deals treacherously
against the wife of your youth.
Malachi 2:15
We are close to a couple who do a wonderful job of having fun together. Having fun together is one good antidote to the wandering hearts of those who are tempted to step outside of monogamy. They bless us by inviting us to have fun with them, too. I recently told you about our trip to Dollywood with them during its Harvest Festival. Since then we have gone there with them again.
We posed with a reindeer, . . .
acted like kids on the carousel, . . .
soared in the sky on the Sky Rider, . . .
licked cinnamon bread goop off our fingers, . . .
listened to Christmas carols, . . .
enjoyed the artificial snow, and . . .
marveled at the lights.
On Friday, we planned to do some shopping in Knoxville on our way home, expecting to arrive in plenty of time for a music recital where two of our grandchildren were performing. A flat tire nixed the shopping idea, but we did get to the recital in plenty of time.
While Ray talked with the owner of a tire establishment, I enjoyed the quiet of a clean and tidy waiting room and later a conversation with the owner who told me all about why he moved to the area and how long he’d been there and how he came to purchase the tire place. People are so interesting.
I love when folks honor themselves, their workers, and their customers with clean and tidy businesses.
Our friends were driving home separately but changed their plans, too, when they found out what happened. They joined us for moral support because they don’t only have fun together. They serve together, too. It’s another one of their secrets of a happy marriage.
Every child needs two parents who thrive — and strive — in the joy of monogamy, while they obey this proverb:
. . . rejoice in the wife of your youth.
Proverbs 5:18b