A Blessed Marriage by Shalene

"For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." Ephesians 5:31NKJV

Some of you know from reading my post "The Blind Leading the Blind" that I am now an ordained minister. You would also know then, that I had no intention of using the titles that go along with that. However, aside from curiosity about how easy it would be to do, I was intrigued by the thought of being able to minister to people that I wouldn't ordinarily be able to reach because of restrictions to their access. Such as prisoners, and hospital patients that I am not related to. I also kind of liked the idea of maybe being allowed to marry people. But I hadn't pursued that at all- until yesterday.

You see, I have a very good friend that I was blessed to bring to the Lord a couple years ago. She has since moved to Oregon, but has become stronger in her faith. I like to think that part of that is my influence. (So I've got a little bit of a big head- sue me.) :) Anyway, she has been living with her fiance for a little over a year now, and though they had plans to get married, because his parents live outside the country, and have health issues that keep them from travelling right now, they postponed the wedding. I have been doing my best to subtly convince them to change their minds. They also have guardianship of a little 7 year old boy that needs to know the permanence of a marriage in the adults that have care over him.

So....yesterday, while I was speaking with her over the phone, we were discussing an upcoming trip I am making to Oregon, and one in which we would get to visit for awhile. And I just happened to mention that I could marry them because I was now legally allowed to do so (we were discussing the fact that they call themselves husband and wife, though they are not.) And Hallelujah! She said yes and so did he! So I am going to be performing my first marriage on September 8, 2007!

I have also been blessed in my own marriage these past few days- even more so than it has been from the beginning. My husband and I have made a point to pray together each day, before we start our day, and to show each other little ways that we love each other. For example, we take a date night once a week, in which no kids are allowed (very important when you have 4 kids, that always seem to be around.) I think it's important to mention here that contrary to the priority positioning in many marriages, children should not come before the spouse. When I was a child, I always resented the fact that my mother seemed to put her relationships before my sister and myself. However, I have since learned that that is the way it was intended by God. If you read the above scripture, it states "and the two shall become one flesh." That means that only God should come before the marriage. Children come right after the marriage, and everything else, after them. We also have learned to communicate our needs to each other. I am so blessed!

So today, I ask for your prayers on my marriage; that it continues to be strengthened and our love continues to grow deeper every day, and I will pray for yours as well. I also ask you to pray for the marriage that I will preside over in a couple weeks, that theirs will also be a marriage blessed by God.

--Lord, I thank you today for the marriage that you have blessed me with, and the gift that you gave me in my husband. I thank you for the 4 wonderful children you have blessed me with. I thank you for the opportunity to minister to others in the ways that you have led me to. I thank you for my friend and for the ways that you have worked in her heart these last couple years, Lord, and I know that without the Holy Spirit in their lives, nothing I could have said would have made a difference. I thank you for the opportunity to marry them, so that theirs could be a relationship blessed by You. I pray for all the marriages of the readers of this blog, that they would be strengthened daily, and blessed as well. I pray all this in Jesus Holy Name. Amen.

Everything is Beautiful by Starfield