Marriage: A Faith Partnership
In church today, our guest pastor told us the story of his wife’s difficult pregnancy. She started having contractions at 13 weeks and called her husband because she was afraid it was the beginning of a miscarriage. Her husband called his friends over to the house and all of them prayed for his wife and unborn children. The wife ended up having to go on bedrest, but she gave birth to a healthy set of twins.
I have often heard that Christians should only marry other Christians and, frankly, I never understood why. After all, Jesus died for all of us, whether we understand that or not. God loves all of his children equally. And there are some very nice and faithful people out there who happen to not be Christian. But this story made me realize one of the reasons that being married to a Christian would be good. When Christians marry each other, the partnership of marriage becomes a partnership of faith as well. When all is well, marriage to a non-Christian is probably not much trouble. But when things are rough, it seems strange to have a spouse who won’t pray for you – or pray with you.
I feel that a marriage between two people who share the same faith provides a sense of security for the couple. In this type of marriage couples form a united front when faced with adversity. The wife knows how her husband will respond in troubled times (for example: through prayer ir searching for answers within the Bible) & vice versa.
Couples that do not share the same faith seem find other ways to deal with problems (sometimes without falling back on religion or spiritual guidance). For example, many couples utilize councelors or psychologists to help sort out any difficulty they may be going through. Many couples that differ in faith create a unique system of dealing with issues that arise. I think that developing this unique system is what makes this type of relationship just as special, because of the time and care involved in building a support system that is non-denominational.
It would be interesting to see statistics of how a couples faith determine how succussful their relationship can be.
But, whether a relationship is based on the same religion or not, God is always present. In my opinion, a successful marriage is determined by the integrity of those involved and the effort put forth to make it work.
Comment by Marvin — February 28, 2006 @ 12:27 am