New Page 0

July 2008

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one. So they are no longer two but one.
What therefore God has joined together let no one put asunder.
~Matthew 19:5-6

Dear Friends In Christ,

It’s Summer time and wedding bells are ringing! Though people do get married throughout the year, the months of June through August are typically the favorite times chosen by most couples to get married. I know that both Pastor Andy and I have been busy meeting with couples for their premarital counseling. It is an exciting time to work with people as they plan for their new life together as “Husband & Wife.”

Typically, we meet with each couple about six times (1 ½ to 2 hours for each session) over at least a six-month period leading up to the wedding date. One thing that we try to impart to every couple is our desire to help them build a Christ-Centered Marriage and Home. We pray that each couple will experience God’s Blessing of a life-long future of joy and love together.

But good marriages never “just happen.” They are the result of a husband and wife truly committed to one another: committed to investing their time, their energy, their BEST in daily making a good marriage. Strong healthy marriages result in strong healthy families. Strong healthy families result in a strong healthy society. For the sake of our marriages, our children, and our society, husbands and wives need to learn to put their relationship of marriage first.

As a Christian, the most important relationship God will ever give to me is my relationship with Him. This must be my 1^st priority — to invest my time, energy, and attention in growing my relationship with Christ. I can’t allow myself to become too busy... to worship, to pray, to read His Word. If I neglect and mess-up this relationship, I will mess—up all the other ones in my life.

Because God has gifted me with a spouse, my second most important relationship to nourish and protect is my relationship with my wife, Kristi. She is (and indeed must be) the most important human being in my life. This is GOD’s natural order for priorities. She is my very best friend.

Because God has gifted us with children, our children are our third most important priority in our lives. Children are naturally more emotionally secure and feel more loved when they know and see that Daddy and Mommy are totally committed to each other. Mothers in our society often make the mistake of prioritizing their children over their relationship with their husband. Likewise, fathers in our society often make the similar mistake of prioritizing their work over their relationship with either their wife or their children. If you are married, are you making time for just the two of you each day? Messed-up priorities result in messed-up lives.

The fourth priority in life is God’s gift of close family members and friends. Note that parents, grandchildren, and old friends do not come before your spouse.

The fifth priority in life should be our occupations. Admittedly, most of us regularly get these priorities all turned around. When that happens, problems just naturally follow.

I share this with you, not because I do a perfect job of keeping these God-given priorities in proper order. I often get them terribly confused and flipped around. But, if we don’t know what our IDEAL should be, we are then often clueless to the source of our problems. Christ must be First in all of our lives. From Him all the other good gifts follow, He is the one who gives us the Love, Patience, Forgiveness, Honesty, Integrity, and Boldness that we all need to be:

Loving — Committed spouses,
Caring — Nurturing parents,
Responsible family members and friends,
Hardworking — Honest employees.

In all of life, let us learn from Christ, the giver of every good and perfect gift.

On the following page is a poem that hangs on our wall next to our Wedding picture. It is a good daily reminder of how to cherish and nurture the gift God gave to Kristi and me 33 years ago. I pray it is a blessing for you.

Together In Christ’s Service,

Pastor Paul L. Larson

The Art of Marriage

A good marriage must be created.
In the marriage the little things
are the big things …

It is never being too old to hold hands.
It is remembering to say “I love you”
at least once a day.

It is never going to sleep angry.
It is having a mutual sense of values
and common objectives.

It is standing together facing the world.
It is forming a circle of love that
gathers in the whole family.

It is speaking words of appreciation
and demonstrating gratitude
in thoughtful ways.

It is having the capacity
to forgive and forget.
It is giving each other an atmosphere
in which each can grow.

It is a common search for the
good and the beautiful.

It is not only marrying
the right person —
It is being the right partner.

~Wilferd A. Peterson