When I married the vows I made were as follows:My Husband said:
"I, Rick,
Take you, Peggie,
To be my wedded wife;
To have and to hold,
From this day forward,
For better, for worse,
For richer, for poorer,
In sickness and in health,
To love and to honor,
'Till death do us part."
My response was:
"I, Peggie,
Take you, Rick,
To be my wedded husband;
To have and to hold,
From this day forward,
For better, for worse,
For richer, for poorer,
In sickness and in health,
To love, honor and obey,
'Till death do us part."
I am sure in some way or other your vows were similar. Yet how many of us will sometimes, even secretly, think of breaking those vows. I mean "till death do us part" is a long time! For better or worse, wow!
I want to look at our vows over the next few posts. See what is really in a marriage vow. Today I want to look at what a vow is, since we make one when we marry we need to know what we made or are going to make.
Merriam Webster defines a vow as:
a solemn[serious] promise or assertion; specifically : one by which a person is bound to an act, service, or condition. (brackets mine from his synonym for solemn)
When we make a vow it is not to be done lightly. It is a binding to act, binding to a condition (marriage) and binding to a person (our spouse). The Bible says our word should be truth, and that our vows should be kept.
Today too many people do not take their vows seriously. We have disposable marriages. Statistics are not good for people getting married today (and progressively worse for 2nd, 3rd etc marriages) as they do not understand or want to go into it knowing it is something till death do us part. Is your word worth anything? Do you mean what you say? Have you thought through what you did the day you married?
Take a look at your vows, if you are married. If you are not, really contemplate those vows before you step into a life long relationship. Remember, you make those pledges before people. sometimes many people, but more importantly you make them before God. You will need to answer to Him someday for the vows you have made.
5 comments:
Ideally I think this is absolutely true! I know that "God hates divorce," but I also think sometimes we Christians are either way too tolerant of it, or way too judgmental because we don't know all the facts.
Mrs. C
I know that some divorces have to be, and there is Biblical reason, but I want for people to realize it is a vow and to be taken seriously. Having been a pastors wife for almost 30 years I heard people say "If it does not work out then we can always divorce" Of course my husband would not perform the wedding with that attitude, but it seems to be the attitude in so many today. A vow means nothing.
When I remarried after his death, I made a vow to my new husband the same as to the first one that death parted me from.
It *is* a vow to be taken seriously!! We need more honesty and working to keep our promises in ALL areas of our lives. I think the divorce thing in GENERAL is just a symptom of that whole idea we have in our society now... if the bills get too much we'll "just" file for bankruptcy sort of mentality, without thinking that when you take out a loan, you're giving YOUR WORD that you'll pay it back.
And that should MEAN SOMETHING when a Christian makes a promise, you know?
At the same time, I've seen a pastor who ripped one family to shreds when the wife sought a divorce after the husband tried to have sex with the daughter but it didn't "quite happen," if you know what I mean, so I guess in his eyes it isn't a biblical divorce (!??). And he said mean things about the daughter LYING about it from the pulpit!!! (The cops thought different, incidentally.)
Such goings-on hardly speak well for Christianity, and I'm very surprised that the woman in question stayed in church... though, believe me, she and several others went to a different location with a different pastor after that!!
It's more like, people make it look like this situation with my friend... SHE is the one looking for divorce so it's her "fault." And I don't feel that way. I think the church should have stood by her and I am disappointed in organized religion to put it mildly.
No offense to you as a pastor's wife though. I'm just doing the "discussion" thing with you, hopefully you see I'm trying to be respectful while bringing up a genuine qualm about absolutism.
Mrs. C
peggie :D check now the new template :D is 100% garden :D
Gis
hih peggy i really like it... i know its not the same as the pink one but everytime is tart redrawing it something new comes up hihihihih
*hugs*
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