Focus on Marriage

Well, this month's Marriage Monday topic of adultery just didn't sit well with me.

First of all, I have NO experience with this sin, personally.  I am blessed that neither my husband nor I have committed adultery nor have we been tempted to.  Our parents are still married as well (both sets) and both have celebrated over 50 years of fidelity.  Only one set are Christians. (mine).

Sadly, I have a couple of friends I've known who have had this hinder their marriage.  And they hurt.  A lot.  I've been witness to tears, and pain/feelings of betrayal. And feelings of unforgiveness which causes bitterness unless dealt with.

After seriously thinking and praying about what to write for this Marriage Monday topic, I decided the best thing...and the thing that brought the most peace to my mind, was to NOT write about Adultery.

Let's keep the focus on MARRIAGE!!  Healthy marriages!!!  This is God's best design for us (for those of us who are married, I mean). He desires, and His perfect plan is, for intact, healthy (spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically) marriages.  Any other thing is, in my opinion, attempts of Satan to destroy this institution.

Focusing on the positive things about marriage seems best for this particular blog.  My vision for Gold in the Clouds is to encourage, edify, and excite women on their journey with Christ.  Therefore....although I know adultery is in the world and even, sadly, in the church, I am not equipped to share on it.  I could relate what little I know of it based on my friends sharing their situations, but quite frankly that is a bit too personal! (plus, I promised one friend I would never write about her experience, at her request).

I do know that each and every person who has told me that her husband had an affair, is left with major woundedness in her heart. Some of them don't even really realize it, I don't think. And since there were children, that also leaves a very devastating effect on them.  They know.  Trust me, they know and if they don't then praise God....because if they are seeing the family as intact there must have been some major forgiveness and work built into the marriage.....either that, or they were just too young to pick up on the cues of disunity in the home.

Jesus wants to be the center of our marriages.

If both spouses are born again, spirit-filled Believers, then putting Jesus in the center is vital.

I don't have much time to write on here until tomorrow nite and E-mom says I must link up by midnite....so....I'm going to leave you with just this:

treasure your spouse.....

          thank the Lord for your spouse......

                  hold each other accountable if temptation rears its ugly head.....

                             maintain close friendships with other women and don't put yourself in a situation where you might be tempted (a situation with a man who is not your husband)......

read the bible together and if that isn't your thing, at least discuss what you are reading on your own and what the Lord is showing you about your dreams, vision, and goals for your marriage....

find a time to practice the Presence of God together......

                       and love your spouse....be available physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.......

(Hebrews 13:4)  "Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed 

be undefiled: but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

—Ephesians 5:22-33