A friend just posted this article from relevant magazine on Facebook. I took the liberty of taking the final excerpt from it, it has a great message on marriage!
Had we studied our Bibles more carefully, we might have discovered this marriage-and-ministry mystery a lot sooner.
The Book of Genesis, for instance, takes us back to God's drawing board, where we see what He designed for man and woman. Marriage was meant for companionship—"It's not good for the man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18 NASB). It was meant for raising children—''Be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:28 NASB). Most Christians would agree on those two goals. But Genesis assigns a third meaning to marriage: joint, fulfilling service. God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden and said: "Take care of this, you two. It's a big job, and you'll need each other. Together—till, plant, replenish, create" (see Genesis 2:15; 1:28).
We hunger for this today: cooperating together, meshing, working like a mountain climbing team, ascending the peak of our dream, and then holding each other at the end of the day. God has planted this hunger deep within every married couple. It's more than a hunger for companionship. It's more than a hunger to create new life. It's a third hunger, a hunger to do something significant together. According to God's Word, we were joined to make a difference. We were married for a mission.
Marriage expert Dennis Rainey says, "One of the missing ingredients of couples today is they do not have a mission; they do not have a sense of God having called them together to do something as a couple."
But often, as we begin to feel this basic longing, we don't know what it is. We get the "seven-year itch" or the "12-year anger" or the "18-year blahs." We think: What's wrong with us? Our companionship may not be perfect, but we have each other. So what are we missing?
We may be missing one-third of what God created marriage for—serving Him together. Counselor James H. Olthuis writes, “To try to keep love just for us ... is to kill it slowly .... We are not made just for each other; we are called to a ministry of love to everyone we meet and in all we do. In marriage, too, Jesus' words hold true: in saving our lives we lose them, and in losing our lives in love to others, we drink of life more deeply."
Recently a wife in San Diego expressed this experience when she wrote to the editor of Marriage Partnershipmagazine. "Over 10 years of marriage, I have found that when my husband and I focus on our own needs, and whether they're being met, our marriage begins to self-destruct. But when we are ministering together, we experience, to the greatest extent we've known, that 'the two shall become one.'"
Our television never told us about this. Our parents probably didn't mention it. Premarital counseling may not have covered it. Regardless, God has given every Christian couple a desire to serve Him together. He has placed you in your home, your family, your work, your church, your neighborhood and has said, in essence: "All this is yours. I'm giving you a mission together to care for the people around you. It's a big job, and you'll need each other. Together, join hands and make a difference."
Your mission may not be a youth group. It might be inviting people for dinner, letting someone stay in your home or helping neighbors pack a moving van. Perhaps one will help with a crisis-pregnancy center while the other watches the children. The possibilities are limitless.
But whatever marriage mission God has for you and your spouse, it will refresh your marriage and will re-ignite your reason for being together. As you venture out on your marriage's mission, you will discover your marriage's meaning.
This article is excerpted from More Than You & Me by Kevin and Karen Miller (© Kevin and Karen Miller). Used by permission.
