Romantic love has no elasticity to it. It can never be stretched; it simply shatters. Mature love, the kind demanded of a good marriage, must stretch, as the sinful human condition is such that all of us bear conflicting emotions.

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

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

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.

“If you want to be free to serve Jesus, there’s no question — stay single. Marriage takes a lot of time. But if you want to become more like Jesus, I can’t imagine any better thing to do than to get married. Being married forces you to face some character issues you’d never have to face otherwise.”

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

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

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.

How can we discover in the challenges of marriage the opportunities to learn more about God, grow in our understanding of him, and learn to love him more?