Only Wanna Be With You

So, here goes the third week in our series, "The Vow"...this particular sermon was entitled "Only Wanna Be With You." In case you haven't noticed, we've been keeping the song title theme :)

In my particular Bible, Matthew 22:34-40 is given the headline, "The Greatest Commandment." I couldn't agree more.

"Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 'Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?' Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

My pastor started off with this verse and then proceded to tell the congregation that all of us, including himself, had our "loves out of order." He said that the top two reasons for a marriage to become out of order was #1-Career, and #2-Children. In a lot of marriages, a spouse may tend to put more effort into his/her career and by the time they return home, they're tired, irritible, etc. This leaves his/her family with the leftovers which isn't good for any relationship. I was shocked to hear children be one of the reasons that marriages are out of order. He explained that parents sometimes put all their energy and effort into their children (which isn't bad for the first few years), but then when the children grow up, the couple find that they no longer have anything in common and sometimes barely know each other. Instead of this, the couple should make time for themselves to show the children a good example of a loving couple.

We also talked about how to most, marriage is like signing a contract. Instead of this mindset, marriage should be thought of as a covenant for a lifetime between husband, wife, and God. The picture I posted by this blog clearly represents this. The background of the picture is part of the Bible verse of Ecclesiastes which states that a "3 fold cord is not easily broken." This is because the marriage has it's loves in order with God being the center of their relationship. Even in relationships (before marriage) I feel it's most important to have God in the middle-without Him, how would the relationship be possible to begin with?