“Christ, King of tenderness,
Christ, King of tenderness,
bind us with a bond
that cannot be broken.
Bind us with a bond of love
that cannot be broken.” Amen.
Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman
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If you like this post please consider buying me a cup of tea (Suggested: $3 a cup)So, I’ve had a blog in some form or another for something like 6 years now and for most of those Valentine’s Day’s I have written an entry to share a number of quotes about love and marriage. I was going back and forth as to whether or not to do this quote collection this year and finally decided to go for it. I hope you all enjoy these quotes on love and marriage this Valentine’s Day J
“I believe that the most lawless and inordinate loves are less contrary to God’s will than a self-invited and self-protective lovelessness…Christ did not teach and suffer that we might become, even in the natural loves, more careful of our own happiness…we shall draw nearer to God, not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armor. If our hearts need to be broken, and if He chooses this as the way in which they should break, so be it” – C.S. Lewis
“All married couples should learn the art of battle as they should learn the art of making love. Good battle is objective and honest–never vicious or cruel. Good battle is healthy and constructive, and brings to a marriage the principle of equal partnership.” – Ann Landers
“Every marriage moves either toward enhancing one another’s glory or toward degrading each other.” – Dan Allender and Tremper Longman III
“Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century.” – Mark Twain
“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
“Happy marriages begin when we marry the ones we love, and they blossom when we love the ones we marry.” – Tom Mullen
“Allow your marriage relationship to stretch your love and to enlarge your capacity for love – to teach you to be a Christian. Use marriage as a practice court, where you learn to accept another person and serve him or her. And please don’t limit this ‘love’ to ‘spiritual’ things like praying, preaching and exhorting. Part of the experience of love is delighting each other in very ‘earthy’ ways. This, too, is a biblical truth.” – Gary Thomas
“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.” – Mignon McLaughlin
“Marriage is not a ritual or an end. It is a long, intricate, intimate dance together and nothing matters more than your own sense of balance and your choice of partner.” – Amy Bloom
“Success in marriage does not come merely through finding the right mate, but through being the right mate.” – Barnett Brickner
“A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.” – Ruth Bell Graham“
The goal in marriage is not to think alike, but to think together.” – Robert C. Dodds
“Once we enter the marriage relationship, we cannot love God without loving our spouse as well.” – Gary Thomas
Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman
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If you like this post please consider buying me a cup of tea (Suggested: $3 a cup)Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
Today I have been thanking God for my wonderful husband, Bryan! LOTS! I feel so grateful to have such an amazing man beside me on this journey. Here’s a little Valentine’s video I made with some pictures from the last 2.5 years since we got married. It makes me happy to look back on these pictures (especially the wedding pictures) and think about the man that I get to spend my life with and it makes me excited for all the many more years together that are yet to come.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HvoVKIQxKE&rel=1]
Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman
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If you like this post please consider buying me a cup of tea (Suggested: $3 a cup)
Warning: This post is mostly about marriage and directed toward the married… if you are not married then I apologize to you for this more specific post…
I was thinking a few days about how it seems weird to me that Valentine’s day happens during lent – it just felt strange to have a mushy, happy holiday about romantic love happen during a season that is focused on repentance and sacrifice. But, then I started thinking more about it and realized that Lent is the perfect time for Valentine’s day.
Lent is about recognizing brokenness and sin in our lives and our world, but it’s also about repenting of brokenness or sin in our lives. Lent is about turning away from brokenness and turning toward wholeness. What better place to start that process of recognizing and naming sin in our lives and repenting and repairing brokenness then in the sacred sacrament of marriage? If our marriages are to be examples and witnesses of Christ’s relationship with the church then it should be essential that we repair brokenness in them quickly that it might not hinder our witness. If our marriages are to be examples of Christ’s relationship with the church then they should also be examples of the healing and wholeness that sacrificial love can bring.
But, there’s another reason as well that marriage seems to me like a good next step of focus for this Lenten journey through brokenness to wholeness… My husband knows my brokenness and sin better than anyone else – he lives in close proximity to it – he feels the effects of it every day. For “[marriage] is the merciless revealer, the great white searchlight turned on the darkest places of human nature” (Katherine Anne Porter). My husband deserves my apology and my repentance maybe more than any other human being. And since I also live in such close proximity to him and his brokenness, he deserves my forgiveness and grace first and foremost.
So, I decided to take this next week or so of lent to focus on my relationship with my husband. Not that I shouldn’t do this always, but maybe in this more focused season we can create some habits of love that will last throughout the year. After having looked in the mirror and looked at my own heart, it seems essential to me that my journey through lent would next lead me to beginning the process of mending any current brokenness or separating in the relationship that is closest to me. For me that is my relationship with my husband. Hopefully in focusing on my marriage relationship I will along the way mend areas of my life that have been separated or broken from God as well.
It seems clear to me that marriage is a sacred sacrament – a sacrament can be defined as a rite that serves as a means of grace and faith in our lives. So, I pray that this week especially God would use my marriage to mediate grace to me and my husband.
It is clear to me that marriage is to be an example and witness of Christ’s sacrificial love for the church. So, I pray that this week especially Christ would show and teach my husband and I how to better live up to this high calling to show through the common marriage relationship the very uncommon, miraculous and mysterious relationship of Christ and his bride, the church.
It seems clear to me that my husband needs my forgiveness and sacrificial love and I need his. So, I pray that this week especially the Holy Spirit would show us our sin, our brokenness, and our pride and would lead us to genuine repentance and a restored relationship with each other and with God.
Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman
Photograph by Blake Stedman
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Beth Stedman. wife. mommy. daughter. friend. homemaker. sinner. believer. writer. cook. dreamer. artist. yogi. photographer. more.
