Marriage Insights - Quotes on "Preparing for Marriage"

Quotes on "Preparing for Marriage"

My wife and I made a vow that we’d never spend a day out of the Bible before we got married, because we knew that what attracted us to us was character, and that character was because of the person of God and His Word. And if we got away from Him, we lost essentially what attracted us. (Tommy Nelson, from Familylife.com broadcast:Essentials -Part 1 of 2)

• Keeping your covenant vow has everything to do with character. Your character must be such that you do not break your word. If your marriage vow (your word) is not sacred to you —if you break it for ungodly reasons —you are not a man or woman of your word, you do not have the character it takes, and you are not marriage material. If these words seem severe, they are intended to be. Many Christians are divorcing —still claiming to be following and obeying God. Most of these have no basis for divorcing their spouse. God hates covenant breaking. Divorce is covenant breaking. God hates divorce (Malachi 2:16). (Mike Williamson, “Building Your Marriage Upon the Rock”).

• WOMEN: Some men can never be husbands until they have been brides, until they have been the bride of Christ,they can’t be your husband or any woman’s husband. Because the qualities that you want in a man are going to be qualities of love, kindness, tenderness, gentleness, and honesty —those are qualities that are in God visited upon men. If that man is superficial with God, you have no guarantee that that man is going to maintain those qualities.

And there are some men who can simply never, ever be married. They can have dogs and cats, but they can’t have a human in that house with them because when a man isn’t submitted to the Lordship of Christ, he can become irresponsible or abusive, and both of those will drive you crazy. And so you check that man for his faithfulness in church, his faithfulness in the Bible, his faithfulness to his mother and his father, his commitment to moral purity. Look for those things in him, because that’s the North Star that gives you a reasonable assurance of his character. That’s the fountain out of which will grow your affection is the continuity of that character.

MEN: Watch that girl. If that girl has a problem with her authority of her parents, if she has a problem with her teachers, why do you think you’ll put [a wedding ring] on, and she’ll look to you and say, “My head and my sovereign.” Do you really think that will happen? Don’t you do it! There are some women who can never, ever be married because of that very thing. And whenever you get a man, whenever you get a woman that is resistant to Genesis, chapter 1—who God is —you can’t have Genesis, chapter 2 —marriage. First, Adam sees God; first, Eve sees God; THEN they see each other —Amen? (Tommy Nelson, from Familylife.com broadcast:Essentials -Part 1 of 2)