November 2007 Archives
Take a look at this marriage clip. If someone were to ask you what you thought of marriage, what would you say? Think for a moment. You are walking through Times Square in NYC and someone puts a mic in front of you and asks you if marriage is dead? Perhaps you'd say "No, of course not." But, what if they asked you to elaborate? My counsel to you: follow the advice of Peter in the New Testament when he said, "Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for hope that you have." (That's part of I Peter 3:15.) Peter is talking about sharing Christ as our hope, of course,...
Read More...
In preparation for a speaking engagement recently I came across a cool verse about marriage. The writer of Ecclesiastes was an interesting dude. He went 'all over the place' in his philosophy and back again. At one point he was saying all of life was nothing but folly. In chapter 3, he provided some great lyrics that many of us first heard on the radio in the 60's by the Byrds: To everything turn, turn, turn There is a season, turn, turn, turn And a time to every purpose under heaven... But in chapter 9 he gets personal with this marriage stuff. The philosophy becomes frighteningly simply yet undeniably wise: "Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days...
Read More...
Imagine a man and woman getting married, say, in the 1920's. Let's say they were both virgins when they married. On their wedding night they had sex. Afterwards the new husband thinks to himself, "That wasn't quite what I thought it would be. But she didn't say anything. I guess it's good for her." At the same time, she is thinking, "That was nothing that I thought it would be. It would probably be better - and I think I'd like it better if we did this or that. But I guess that's the way he likes it so I guess it's okay." There's a lot of "guess work" going on, isn't there? Now, fast forward with me to this...
Read More...
A few weeks ago I was in the Orlando airport headed home from one of our marriage conferences. My favorite "passing the time" activity is people watching. It doesn't take much to amuse myself, but on this particular trip home, amused? I was not. I found myself picking my jaw up off the floor watching this couple talk to each other as if cursing and badmouthing is a new love language in bizarro world. Finally, it was time to board the plane. Thank goodness! As I sat down in my seat, I thought to myself how sad is this couple's story. Life is too short to be miserable. Still figuring out what just happened, the couple boarded the plane and...
Read More...
I love Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade that goes through Manhattan, New York. As a child, my brother and I would wake up in the morning and watch the parade while mom was cooking in the kitchen. Still to this day, I wake up on Thanksgiving Day remembering those precious times. And don’t forget about watching the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys! After the parade, we (dad, brother and I) would watch football while mom was still cooking. We didn’t even like the Lions or the Cowboys, but it became tradition to switch over after the parade and watch the games. I can remember vividly the aroma coming from the kitchen and keep in mind… this little boy didn’t eat anything...
Read More...
Whatever the area of achievement, many people think you really haven't celebrated unless you find yourself spending tons of money. The logic seems to go like this: the more money spent, the truer the fact is that you have "really celebrated". As a married couple, there will be many different accomplishments either of you two together - or each of you - will experience. It is important to celebrate all of them. How you celebrate may differ greatly, but celebrate you must. We were just married and in school so you can imagine how much money we had. I like to say that we were so poor, we couldn't pay anything - we couldn't even pay attention! But we celebrated...
Read More...