Five (hundred) Gold Rings!
During this Advent and Christmas season, everyone became engaged or got married.
Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration…but only a bit! Seriously, there were a lot of engagements. It seemed like every day Facebook was announcing yet another one. During one particular twenty-four hour period, four new engagements were announced!
All this is wonderful news, of course. It’s great to see so many of my male friends, both in America and England, manning up, getting down on one knee and popping the question. For the last few weeks my News Stream has been filled with lots of happy pictures 🙂
As the number of engagements and weddings increased I thought about doing something here on the blog to mark the occasion. I’ve written a little bit about marriage before, but mainly focusing on the theological dimension and the exhortations of the Early Church Fathers. This time I wanted to share something of value concerning the day-to-day life in a Christian marriage, some advice on how to lead one another to Heaven and to keep God at the centre of the marriage as the “third strand”.
However, given that I’m not married myself, I don’t think I’m really in a position to give this advice! So I’ve decided to outsource this post, turning it over to my friends who are already married! I am also going to email my married friends and ask them this question:
As a Christian spouse, what piece of advice would you give all my friends who are committing to marriage?
Please comment below…
UPDATE: I put all the advice together into this post here, Wise Words for Newlyweds.
so i’m not the only one who has had this happen this year! 4 or 5 friends got engaged, 2 more got married this month, one getting married in April, one in June, and one announced she was pregnant. 2013 isn’t messing around! Looking forward to the follow-up post when your friends answer this question!
Yeah, it’s been a crazy month…
Send the link to your married friends 🙂
For all the engaged and single guys, it’s really simple. happy wife = happy life
I have to agree with Gina (happy wife=happy life). Haha, seriously though, marriage is about communication & compromise. It’s not all about you, as a single person. The goals I had as a single person changed when I got married. It’s not a bad thing either. Life has actually turned out for the better. :). Anyways, always remain open with your spouse when it comes to the goals in life. And remember its okay to be wrong. Expect to apologize once in awhile & always forgive your spouse, too. Because even when you strive to communicate with one another there will be times of miscommunication…we are human after all.
Here’s something from a man’s perspective…
Laugh and have a sense of humor =-p. Learn to laugh at yourself.
Realize how rich you are…even if you don’t have much money or don’t have as much as you want. True riches are: Your spouse, your friends, your Parish, your community.
Don’t sweat the small stuff.
Your spouse has a lot to teach you…don’t be a “know it all”.
Keep romance alive.
Always have a sense of awe and wonder of God’s love and gifts.
I think having God as a part of the marriage is key. Praying together, growing spiritually with one another, and learning to be patient with each other. If you have a Godly perspective the love you share for each other will be amazing.
Humility, obedience and praying for the virtue of patience will be your guide. On the way to the hospital after discovering I had a fever affer nearly two days of having my water broken, Dan, my husband was driving us to the hospital, putting the kobosh on our planned home birth. I was sad, but him being my husband, he had made the executive decision to go to the hospital. I distinctively remember on the way there, that I was to learn what it REALLY meant to be an obedient and humble wife, submitting to my husband and the decisions he was to make on behalf of my health as well as our then unborn baby’s health. It was not easy, especially when during labor I asked for pain meds, and he said I didn’t need them. He was right. I am grateful he said no, for I had the chance to grow in humility, obedience and yes, holiness. At the most painful moment in my life, he knew me better than I knew myself and what I was capable of achieving. As a wife, you MUST trust your husband. He will stand before God Almighty on the day of judgment and jave to answer for not only the kind of man he was, but how lived out his vocation. As wives, we wil also stand before God Almighty and be judged on how well we lived out our vocation and is we were obedient to our husbands. When you have a good husband, a wife need not worry what her husband asks of her 🙂
Never go to bed angry. Nothing is so important that you cant stop and listen. Tell her you love her and she’s beautiful every day. It helps her feel like what you see everyday. Finally, always put God first. Don’t plan God around your life, make him the center of it. Hope this helps.
While I don’t expect for one moment it’s in response to this post, Dr. Taylor Marshall has posted a very appropriate answer to this question…
http://cantuar.blogspot.com/2013/01/we-have-no-wine-devotion-for-married.html
Nice post!
Turns out that Hallie over at Moxie Wife is doing the same thing 🙂
http://moxiewife.com/2013/01/seeking-your-advice-for-the-newly-engaged/.html