Three Building Blocks To A Happy Marriage
Sermon
THIS NEW LIFE TOGETHER
An Anthology Of Wedding Meditations
I'd like to take a few moments to reflect on our scripture, as we think about the building blocks to a happy marriage: faith, hope, and love. All of us who are married would do well to think on these things.
First of all, faith, in God. I know that God plays an important part in each of your lives. It was God who brought you together, and it is God who will keep you together, even through the struggles that every marriage has. And so we make God a part of this service as you dedicate yourselves to each other, you are also publicly acknowledging God's presence in your lives, and inviting him to be a part of this commitment you are about to make. And I'm sure God will bless your marriage, because you've asked for his help.
And then we need to have faith in each other. As we see God's faithfulness to us, that helps us to keep our faith in each other strong. There are bound to be times when we let each other down, but if we can keep our faith in the other person, our faith can help to build them back up.
The second building block is hope. Hope is similar to faith, but when we go through the difficult times we are sure to face in marriage, and it's difficult, to anticipate now what struggles may lie ahead, it's hope that will allow us to be able to see the rainbow at the end of the storm, the light at the end of the tunnel. While our faith keeps our commitment intact, it's hope that keeps our spirits up when life tries to get us down. Hope will help us to see good even in the midst of the bad, and hope will keep us hanging in there until things get better. The hope we are talking about is not an iffy hope, like hoping we win the lottery, but a sure and solid hope based on our faith in God.
The third building block is love, the greatest of the three. Think for a moment of the love you feel for each other right now, and know that that love is real. But it's more than a feeling that you bring to this commitment of marriage. We bring all that we have, all that we are, and we give it in love. Jesus' love led him to die for us, and your love for each other will lead you to give sacrificially to each other.
May your new life today bring all the happiness that you feel today, and may faith and hope become the building blocks for true love to grow in your lives, and in all of our lives.
Trevor Herm is pastor of Yale and Greenwood United Methodist churches, Yale, Michigan.
First of all, faith, in God. I know that God plays an important part in each of your lives. It was God who brought you together, and it is God who will keep you together, even through the struggles that every marriage has. And so we make God a part of this service as you dedicate yourselves to each other, you are also publicly acknowledging God's presence in your lives, and inviting him to be a part of this commitment you are about to make. And I'm sure God will bless your marriage, because you've asked for his help.
And then we need to have faith in each other. As we see God's faithfulness to us, that helps us to keep our faith in each other strong. There are bound to be times when we let each other down, but if we can keep our faith in the other person, our faith can help to build them back up.
The second building block is hope. Hope is similar to faith, but when we go through the difficult times we are sure to face in marriage, and it's difficult, to anticipate now what struggles may lie ahead, it's hope that will allow us to be able to see the rainbow at the end of the storm, the light at the end of the tunnel. While our faith keeps our commitment intact, it's hope that keeps our spirits up when life tries to get us down. Hope will help us to see good even in the midst of the bad, and hope will keep us hanging in there until things get better. The hope we are talking about is not an iffy hope, like hoping we win the lottery, but a sure and solid hope based on our faith in God.
The third building block is love, the greatest of the three. Think for a moment of the love you feel for each other right now, and know that that love is real. But it's more than a feeling that you bring to this commitment of marriage. We bring all that we have, all that we are, and we give it in love. Jesus' love led him to die for us, and your love for each other will lead you to give sacrificially to each other.
May your new life today bring all the happiness that you feel today, and may faith and hope become the building blocks for true love to grow in your lives, and in all of our lives.
Trevor Herm is pastor of Yale and Greenwood United Methodist churches, Yale, Michigan.
