This is a time of great joy often overshadowed by a busyness you
haven’t foreseen. Your house is perhaps strewn with books
and magazines displaying today’s finest dresses, flower decorations,
latest trends, etc. Or, there may be a quiet absence of these things
because you desire a simpler occasion.
Whether of not this is the case for you, one thing is for sure.
You and your betrothed will stand before someone and exchange vows.
While rings, dresses, invitations, and other aspects of a wedding
are important...
Nothing
is more important than the words that will be spoken during the
ceremony...
This is the
covenant…the spiritual and legal agreement. It is without
question the most important aspect of your wedding. Without it,
you only have an arrangement and no foundation on which to build
your family and your future. I always tell couples, “Marriage
is the foundation of human civilization. When we cheapen marriage,
we cheapen ourselves.” Whether your wedding is formal in Houston,
Galveston, Kemah, or an informal beach wedding, the most import
focus should be the terms of the covenant. It outweighs the venue
by far!
In a day and age when divorce in America has surpassed 50% (that
figure is the same even inside Christian circles), wouldn’t
it be wise to make every effort to prevent this from happening to
you and the person you treasure and respect so much? If you have
been divorced and are now entering a new marriage, don’t you
desire with all your heart to never experience the pain, sorrow,
and loss of divorce again? Keep in mind; the divorce rate for second
marriages has soared above 65%!4
Is there something that can be done to help improve the success
of a marriage? YES! While is has been said that, “a wedding
is an event, but a marriage is an accomplishment”, I fully
believe that...
Your
ceremony can be the beginning point for establishing God's blessing
on your marriage.
While there
are no guarantees in life, a blessed wedding (and a clear understanding
of God’s covenant) will give you a strong foundation on which
to build your family and future. Remember the words of our Lord,
“the wise man built his house upon a rock!”
It’s my pleasure to introduce to you the beauty and treasure
of a “covenant marriage” which begins in what I call
“A Blessed Wedding.” In this ceremony, you open yourselves
to a covenant that God can and will bless. You set the foundation
stone for a future and a hope and an anchor that will hold through
all the storms of life.
You do have power to shape your future...and it begins with "A
Blessed Wedding!"
1. "In 1994, 4.6 of every 1,000 Americans divorced.
... Currently, divorce laws in almost every state give greater legal
rights to spouses who want to end the marriage than to spouses who
want to try to work out their marital problems. According to FRC's
1995 Family Issues Survey, 55 percent of the American public want
to see these laws modified to offer greater protection to spouses
interested in saving the marriage. " Quoted from the Family
Research Council's State-by-state divorce rates 1994
2. "According to the National Center for Health Statistics
(1988: 2-5), the divorce rate rose from 2.5 per 1000 population
in 1965 to 3.5 in 1970 to 4.8 in 1975."
"No-Fault Divorce: Proposed Solutions to a National Tragedy,"
1993 Journal of Legal Studies 2, 15, citing National Center for
Health Statistics, 1988, 2-5, cited by Thomas B. Marvell, Divorce
Rates and the Fault Requirement, 23 Law & Society Review 544,
n.4, (1989).
3. "Over the past 30 years a consistent 96% of the American
public has expressed a personal desire for marriage. Only 8% of
American women consider remaining single ideal, a proportion that
has not changed over the past twenty years. Almost three-quarters
of adult Americans believe that "marriage is a lifelong commitment
that should not be ended except under extreme circumstances."
Even 81% of divorced and separate Americans still believe that marriage
should be for life." Rebuilding the Nest: A New Commitment
to the American Family, ed. David Blankehorn, Steve Bayme, and Jean
Bethke (Milwaukee, WI: Family Service America, c. 1990), 97-98.
Cited on page 8 of The Abolition of Marriage, by Maggie Gallagher
4. 65% of new marriages fail.
Teresa Castro Martin and Larry L. Bumpass, "Recent Trends in
Marital Disruption", Demography 26 (1989): 37-51. Cited on
page 5 of The Abolition of Marriage, by Maggie Gallagher
