May 30th, 2020: Commitments Start with Questions
A young fellow called me yesterday and let me know that he is
planning to get married later this summer and would like to know whether
I will be able to celebrate their wedding. It was rather a refreshing
call because many phone calls I have received lately are not happy ones.
He was excited and told me that together they have started their search
for a house. He then told me about the real reason for his call. He
wonders whether I would meet with both of them due to Covid-19 to walk
through a period of preparation with them.
For
me, it is both a privilege and a responsibility to take on that role in
someone's life and I won't take it lightly. So I asked them to think
about a few questions before our first meeting:
A) Why marriage? Many people nowadays just chose to live together? Why didn't they consider that option?
B)
Why each other? Have they known much about each other's personal and
family history? What would they appreciate about each other's family?
C)
Who is God in their relationship? Do they ask God for guidance as they
plan to be together as husband and wife? How do they know that God has
guided them together?
D) Finally, how are they thankful for one another?
He
told me that will take the whole lifetime to figure out the answers to
some of these questions. I told him that is the whole point of the
exercise. They need to approach it with hope and conviction. Hope will
grant us the courage to overcome our lack of knowledge. A conviction
will help us to persevere when things are not going smoothly. No need to
consider marriage without hope and perseverance. Hope is based on God's
blessings. Perseverance is based on God's faithfulness.
