IT TAKES TWO FOR A MARRIAGE COVENANT
Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Ecclesiastes 4:12 NIV
THERE ARE 3 THINGS A COVENANT REPRESENTS:
1. IT IS CONDUCTED BEFORE GOD
2. IT IS CONDUCTED BEFORE WITNESSES
3. IT DECLARES THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE COMMITMENT
21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband
Ephesians 5:21-33 NIV
PRACTICAL THINGS TO KEEP YOUR MARRIAGE HEALTHY:
I. PUT GOD FIRST
- Ask God first before you make any important decisions.
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:33 NIV
II. EXPRESS APPRECIATION FOR EACH OTHER
- Learn your spouses love language.
III. PRACTICE HONESTY
IV. TAKE CARE OF YOUR APPEARANCE
V. WATCH YOUR WORDS AND ACTIONS
To keep your marriage brimming, whenever you’re wrong admit it, whenever you’re right, shut up. —Ogden Nash
VI. MAINTAIN YOUR INTIMACY AND PASSION