Sunday Lessons: Marriage and Forgiveness

Our pastor's sermon today was just so inspiring for me and my husband.  I don't think there has been a worse battle against traditional marriage in the whole history of the world as there is raging today.  Everywhere on TV, in the news, on popular shows, in our political leaders, we see marriages failing and people turning to adultery or cohabitation without marriage without the promises that marriage is supposed to instill.  Our pastor had these words to say:  marriage is a covenant, not a contract.  It isn't about what is "legal" or "illegal."  It is about what God created to be a holy union upon which all other facets of civilized society is supposed to be built.  It is the sacred place where children are supposed to be born and raised.  It is not just an Old Testament antiquated belief.  Jesus also supported marriage in this way as he told those who questioned him about divorce that marriage should be as it was originally intended by God at the time of creation.  Divorce has been increasingly on the rise in our society since the whole concept of "no fault" divorce arose in our legal system.  Instead of sticking together and working through difficulties, couples just give up.  To me, that is just the saddest situation...especially when children are involved.  In my belief, the Bible only supports divorce under two circumstances (adultery and desertion).  Until the 1960s, that was also the belief held by this country.  Marriage is about forgiveness.  It is about a union between a man and woman (I am not going to go further into that principle here and now) in which that couple covenants before God to love their spouse "for better and for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health as long as they both shall live."  It is about that couple experiencing both life's joys and life's sorrows and trials together and getting through the rough times together.  My favorite part of the sermon was when the pastor said marriage is about shared memories, and as he stated, if a couple can just make it through the first 5 years, the possibility of success is drastically improved because the couple will have so many shared memories as they weathered storms together and shared wonderful memories together that they will have great difficulty with separation.  I agree.  Although Eddie and I have weathered our fair share of storms, we have so many wonderful memories together during our over 9 years of marriage.  It would be impossible to separate or just throw away those memories with our marriage.  I am now married to my best friend, and it is very hard to leave your best friend!  So while divorce runs rampant in our society and culture, I pray that God will seek to protect what he has deemed sacred.

After the preacher spoke about the Biblical story of Hosea and his wife, a prostitute, who left her husband to go back to her old ways and how her husband relentlessly pursued her and offered her forgiveness, we heard from a real life couple who had been through similar circumstances.  This man is to be admired and praised for his forgiveness of his wife and his reaching out and lovingly pursuing her.  His wife had struggled since childhood with addiction issues (alcohol and drugs) and had been in the lowest of situations.  She had married her husband hoping he could "save" her from this lifestyle.  That is a big mistake!  No human can ever "save" you from sin -- that job belongs only to God.  She became even more miserable and turned back to her old ways.  She left her husband and went with her drug dealer on a trip where she took numerous drugs and was so out of it that she was brutally raped by several men.  Her husband, meanwhile, turned to God and accepted him into his heart.  The husband led by God then relentlessly pursued his wife in love and brought her from this terrible situation she was in.  They are still happily married and sharing their story to hopefully help others.  What a beautiful ending to a heartbreaking story!