I attended two weddings in a row a couple weeks back. I love weddings and in the last several years I am always filled with emotion as the bride walks down the aisle. There is something incredibly beautiful about the joining of two lives into one.
I believe the main reason for my tears is the fact that the wedding is the easy part and I know the future journey for the married couple is going to be filled with challenges, disappointments, and frustrations. That’s not to say they won’t experience many good times too, but there will come a point where the challenges seem insurmountable and that is when many people choose to end their marriage. The current divorce statistics show that almost 40% of all marriages end in divorce. Those are not good odds, especially when we know that the devil prowls around like a lion and his goal is to steal, kill, and destroy.
That is why at each wedding I attend, I pray that the marriage can stand strong through the hard times such as the death of a child, a straying spouse, job loss, addiction, infertility, etc.* While I won’t go into detail in a blog post as I prefer to share details of my marriage in person, I can tell you that I am living a restored marriage and I do not know of any earthly thing more beautiful than that.
A prayer for marriage:
Lord, thank you for creating marriage as an earthly example of the love you have for the church. Please help us in our weaknesses and our struggles. Help us to continually choose our spouse day after day. Encourage us when the days are long and the stress of marriage seems to be too much. Give us a heart of compassion for our spouse and a desire to serve them. Give us the courage to reach out to others when we need help. Through our struggles, please help us remember that with you all things are possible. Thank you for loving us and for loving our spouse. You are a great God. Amen.
*God does not call us to live in an abusive marriage. If you are in a marriage where you are being abused physically, emotionally, or in any other way, please reach out for help.
– Jen Elgersma
Photo by Jeremy Wong Weddings on Unsplash