Making It Work

"And He answered and said to them, 'Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' 

and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? 

So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.'" 

~ Matthew 19:4-6                                                                           

My parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary yesterday. That's an amazing feat in today's society. With fifty percent of couples divorcing, one wonders how the other fifty percent survive.

Warren and Barbara Johnson married in June of 1971. Shortly after, they moved to Indiana. In 1974, they brought their first daughter into the world. Their world was a small shack, where the roof leaked over their bed. They took baths in a child's plastic swimming pool, and it got so cold at times that the baby's fingers and toes would turn purple. An outhouse served as their bathroom.

Barb reached a point of frustration and begged her father to allow her to move home with the baby. Henry had the wisdom to tell his daughter no. She'd chosen to marry Warren, and where Warren lived would be her home from now on.

Soon, the two moved into a brick house and out of the misery of the shack. Did that make things easier? Not necessarily. Remaining married would take effort on both their parts.

A couple of years later, they moved to Kentucky, where they brought another daughter and a son into their world. Not long after, they returned to New York due to the failing health of Warren's parents.

Life comes with ups and downs, heartaches and joys, troubles and prosperity. Warren took out-of-town jobs to bring finances to the household. Sometimes it proved easier to work away from home. Things weren't always "happily ever after." Through it all, they remained faithful and married.

Because marriage takes work. It takes effort. Vic and I have had our ups and downs, heartaches and joys, fights and peace, troubles and prosperity. Just as Mom and Dad could have allowed their own desires to separate them, Vic and I could have, too. But God's word says that when a man leaves his father and mother, joins himself to his wife, and they become one flesh, no man is to put that asunder. Not the husband. Not the wife. Not the in-laws. Not the divorce court. Because God designed marriage as a covenant, not a contract. It didn't come with conditions. It didn't come with provisions for failures. No. It is a binding covenant til death do us part.

Join me tomorrow for Part Two...

Photo is of Warren and Barbara Johnson on their wedding day, June 20, 1971.