Christian Marriage: Guarding the United Front
“Keeping my home is only partly about cleaning, cooking and managing the affairs here. It is foremost about keeping in the sense of guarding. And what more important to guard than the united front that is my husband and me?”
C.S. Lewis said, “We need to be reminded more than instructed.” Truer words could not be spoken.
The “elder ladies” in our church hosted a marriage seminar Saturday. It was a much-needed breath of fresh air, both convicting on many levels, and inspiring to the point of action. It may take several posts for me to pass along the encouragement.
(Disclaimer: these are not posts about “whether or not a Christian woman should submit to her husband” or “whether the Bible teaches differences in roles for husbands and wives”. If you’re interested in that debate, I’m sure there are other places for that. My time is limited, and while debate about some issues is a part of this blog, I’ve searched the opposition to its end, and still hold the Bible as my authority and maintain that is speaks clearly and absolutely regarding marriage. I will guard our time here and try to prevent fruitless debate with those who have a different worldview regarding marriage. Also, posts like these inevitably lean toward the “what ifs” and hypotheticals of marriage. These posts are for Christian women who are in non-abusive marriages who wish to follow God’s design for a more fruitful and rewarding relationship.)
So I came away, though everything we heard we had heard before, with a freshness of purpose. Isn’s it funny how the same information can still be so enlightening again and again?
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We want happy marriages (though the goal is not happiness)…check.
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We know God speaks on the subject…check.
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We faithfully live in accordance with that word…not so much!
The beginning point continues to be, for me, that I must make my marriage a priority. If you happen to live with a loving, easy-going husband like mine, it’s easy to let marriage slip down the list of priorities.
But what a dangerous place for us to put our most important, earthly relationship! So my very first slap-in-the-forehead moment at the seminar was this:
Keeping my home is only partly about cleaning, cooking and managing the affairs here. It is foremost about keeping in the sense of guarding. And what more important to guard than the united front that is my husband and me?
If you can picture a family like a house. I like to think of the foundation as the worldview of the family. A Christian couple should have a biblical foundation. All inside the house is treasured and sacred. It is the fundamental starting place for the advancement of the Kingdom. But the door…ah, that most important part. The door is the marriage. The security of the entire house depends on the sturdiness and security of that door. When the door is neglected, begins to deteriorate, the entire house stands to be ravaged.
Do I consider my marriage worthy of fierce protection? And do I prioritize it so that I’m doing my part to guard it? Or do I trust in a false sense of invincibility?
I have to raise my hand at this point and say, “guilty”. I have often let other things demand more of my time and attention and I am committing anew to change that.
Marriage is the lifeblood that flows from my personal life to family, community, church and culture. It’s seems too obvious, but I don’t think we are believing and communicating how important this relationship is! My marriage, in large part, sets the precedence for my children’s marriages. And all our marriages comprise the picture of the gospel. It is the relationship through which God chose to depict His love for us and our response to Him.
The way we love our spouses tells the world how we love our Lord….ouch.
“We are the Body of which the Lord is Head,
Called to obey Him, now risen from the dead;
He wills us be a family,
Diverse yet truly one:
O let us give our gifts to God,
And so shall his work on earth be done.”


As we’ve discussed the idea of church nursery and children’s ministry, I wanted to restate something I mentioned in the comment section from a recent post: This issue is not about “right and wrong” as much as it is about “wise or not”. It’s not about attacking your church and its intentions, it’s about the challenge to think, possibly about positions you may haven’t thought of before.








