June has gone by swiftly. In this age and time many brides-to-be still long to be wedded on this month.
Unlike the previous decades where the church appeared to be the only suitable venue. The adventurous, modern, and imaginative are married in some of the unthinkable places. The garden, the beach, on a highland, and even underwater are the common locale. With the changing times, souvenirs have also become very pragmatic: soap, candle, cookie, mint chocolate or a seedling/herb in a pot are given away.
A lengthy time is spent in planning and in preparing for the big day. The best caterer, designer, photographer are selected to make this milestone even more memorable. However, couples these days seem to have a distorted context of the real essence of love and commitment. Thus, no matter how ideal they are with their sincerest intent to make the vow perpetual, separate. Some marry for convenience sake; others for all the wrong reasons.
The seminar conducted by
Pastor Jed Raquintan last June 27th delved on
Courtship and Marriage for the singles.May these quotations inspire you to be wiser in discerning for a lifetime partner.
The Beauty of Marriage
How beautiful then the marriage of two Christians, two who are one in hope, one in desire, one in the way of life they follow, one in the religion they practice. They are as brother and sister, both servants of the same Master. Nothing divides them, either in flesh or in spirit. They are, in very truth, two in one flesh; and where there is but one flesh there is also but one spirit. They pray together, they worship together, they fast together; instructing one another, encouraging one another, strengthening one another. Side by side they visit God's church to partake of God's Banquet; side by side they face difficulties and persecution, share their consolations. They have no secrets from one another; they never shun each other's company; they never bring sorrow to each other's hearts. -Tertullian (Reformer) Unknown
Romance in Its Place
Romance is believed to be "the thing" which ties a marriage together, and it is further thought that young people understand the dynamics or romance far better than their elders. Now the emotional and attachment we have for one another is a gift from God. But romance has the same function as the curtains of the house - it cannot serve as the concrete poured for the foundation. What establishes the foundation for any godly marriage is covenantal faithfulness... with the whole heart a man should ask what the Bible requires of him in his treatment of his wife. A wife must concerning the treatment of her husband. When Christians enter into marriage this way, they are blessed with wonderful marriages. Not surprisingly, an obedient man and wife have strong emotional and romantic attachments to one another. But when romance is the foundation, the house does not take very long at all before it starts to crumble. Too often we today call infatuation by the name of romance, thus one can suddenly "fall" into romantic love, or one is all of a sudden "hit" by such love. True love encompasses much more than we call by that name today, it does however cover the idea of romance; though not infatuation or fascination, or should we say lust. Thus we need to have a love which is much more than mere romance, but we also need to distinguish true romance from modern "romantic love" ore mere infatuation. Failure to understand the first is dealt with in the quote, failure to distinguish between true and false romanticism leads to young people disobeying parents in the name of "love," hasty marriages, and even someone saying something like "I couldn't help "falling" in love with someone else's wife, you can't choose who you "fall" in love with. Need I say and to all other imaginable perversions. This also touches on how we need to learn that our reasons should rule our emotions, not be dominated by them. Douglas Wilson, Her Hand in Marriage, p.23
