Making Marriage Work “So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6)

HAPPY Is not always EVER AFTER

EVER AFTER Is not always HAPPY

Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”

WORK!

WORK! CHOOSE!

WORK! CHOOSE! LEARN!

Learn to LOVE

ἔρως – eros αγάπη – agape natural affection; romantic love sacrificial (it is learned/intentional)

Stages of Marital Love The first two years: young love (the honeymoon). Years three through ten: realistic love. Years 11 through 25: comfortable love. Years 26 through 35: renewing love. Year 36 on: transcendent love (profound love).

EPHESIANS 5:25, 28, 33 25 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her….” 28 “So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.” 33 “Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”

TITUS 2:4 “…that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children….”

Learn to LISTEN

It is interesting what people will do in order to be heard!

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood” (Stephen Covey).

JAMES 1:19-20 “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”

Learn to LEARN

2PETER 1:5 “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.”

PROVERBS 1:5 “A wise man will hear and increase learning, And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel…”

Experience is often the best teacher.

Learn to LAUGH

GENESIS 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

AND THE FUNNIEST ONE OF ALL…

You have to laugh, or you will cry

“Son, please don’t bite the dog.” “Sweetheart, what do you think of my manicure.” “You have to change your clothes when you get out of the shower.” “I have to go to Wal-mart to buy a hair straightener for my son.” “You are grounded from reading.”

Kids and romance really do not mix. Learn to laugh.

PROVERBS 17:22 “A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.”

PROVERBS 17:22 “A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.”

Learn to LIVE

GENESIS 2:18 “And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.’”

When we learn… …to love. …to listen. …to learn. …to laugh. We can LIVE!!

Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”

EPHESIANS 3:20-21 “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Marriage is work. The work pays off abundantly.