[Marriage] is the merciless revealer, the great white searchlight turned on the darkest places of human nature. Katherine Anne Porter

What marriage has done for me is hold up a mirror to my sin. It forces me to face myself honestly and consider my character flaws, selfishness, and anti-Christian attitudes, encouraging me to be sanctified and cleansed and to grow in godliness.

Knowing why we are married and should stay married is crucial. The key question is this: Will we approach marriage from a God-centered view or a self-centered view? In a self-centered view, we will maintain our marriage as long as our earthly comforts, desires, and expectations are met. In a God-centered view, we preserve our marriage because it br

If what we desire most doesn’t satisfy us, we will never be satisfied, even when our “desires” have been met! That’s why finding our fulfillment in God is the cornerstone of a satisfied life. We can harm our marriages by asking too much of them.

The prophet Hosea leads us into a startling reality — that God views his people as a husband views his wife: “ ‘In that day,’ declares the LORD, ‘you will call me “my husband”; you will no longer call me “my master.” . . . I will betroth you to me forever’ ” (Hosea 2:16, 19). Think about the difference between a husband and a master — and all that

Marriage can be that holy place, the site of a relationship that proclaims God’s love to this world. Notice what makes this story so moving: two individuals who have greater empathy for the difficulties in each other’s situation rather than in their own. Selfish marriage is the opposite: each partner feels their own pain more intensely and their sp

Any situation that calls me to confront my selfishness has enormous spiritual value, and I slowly began to understand that the real purpose of marriage may not be happiness as much as it is holiness.

We show our love for God in part by loving our spouses well. And we love our spouses by loving God.

What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?