Strengthening the Marriage Community

The following is an email we received yesterday--- we thought it well worth passing along.

 Sun, 7/13/08, Keith Overturf liverite@christianchallengeandblessing.com 

Strengthening the Marriage Community, Marriage Message 365  

"With all of the worthy causes in the world, why should you consider spending your time and talents to help strengthen marriage? Cicero gave [a good] answer
some 2000 years ago when he said, 'The first bond of society is marriage.'

We believe Cicero had it right. Marriage is the foundation of the family, and the family is the foundation of society. If we strengthen marriage, we strengthen the family, we strengthen the children and we strengthen the community. If your goal is to help  improve the world, strengthening marriage is one of the best places to start"  (from the booklet: "Strengthening Marriages in Your Community: 101 Ideas to Get Started").

And we whole-heartedly agree, because marriage is portrayed throughout the Bible  as a living picture of Christ's love for the church. How much nearer or dearer could you get to pleasing God's heart than to improve your own marriage so that it reflects the love of Christ, and then reach out to help others to improve theirs as well?

We've been repeatedly asked the question, "Why do you spend so much of yourselves helping marriages?" And our answer is: It's because the love of Christ compels us.  If there is one less child crying himself or herself to sleep tonight because God has used us to help their mom and dad get along better, it makes it worth every bit of time, energy, and money we've spent. We consider it a wonderful privilege to participate with God in this awesome ministry.

But there is so much more that needs to be and could be done, if there were more of us working together on this worthy cause. That's why we'd like to share some ideas, hoping that you will find at least one that you could implement to help strengthen your marriage and others around you in your corner of the world.  The
  first few we'll be sharing comes from the booklet mentioned above, which was put together by the Coalition for Marriage, Family and Couples Education (which you can order individually or in quantity at
http://www.smartmarriages.com/grants.html ):

  ~ "Celebrate the anniversaries of your family and friends with the same enthusiasm that you celebrate their birthdays - gifts, cards, parties, surprise parties - all the bells and whistles.

  ~ "Ask radio stations to hold a contest for the most creative and/or least expensive marriage date.

  ~ "Ask your congregation or daycare to sponsor a date night for married couples.  Include childcare. See www.marriagealive.org

  ~ "Give marriage education books and classes as wedding, anniversary, birthday, and baby shower gifts.

  ~ "Provide information on building strong marriages at bridal showers [we have quotes you could use at www.marriagemissions.com ].

  ~ "Hold a Marriage Fest in your community [or church]. Have games, food, and marriage education booths.

  ~ "Set up an e-mail service that sends out marriage strengthening ideas on a weekly basis [you can send ours to those on your list].

  ~ "Help your children gain the skills necessary to have a successful marriage."

  Some additional tips to help your marriage and to reach out to help others are:

  ~ Work to be a good role model for everyone to see (including those in your home) what a difference Christ can make in a marriage.

  ~ Make sure your church and community libraries have a good supply of marriage strengthening resources available for all who could use them.

  ~ Make sure that there are marriage strengthening classes taught at your church from time-to-time. You may even consider being a teacher.

  ~ "You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love   and in endurance. Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of
God.
    Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything, set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say"
(Titus 2:1-8).

  ~ Consider mentoring another married couple with  your spouse. Be an investment couple in the lives of others. (We have articles that could help you on the Marriage Missions web site in the "Marriage Mentoring" section.)  Or if your spouse doesn't want to do this, ask God to show you a younger (same sex) person you can mentor. A newlywed could especially find this beneficial.

  ~ Ask a few other married couples that you know to get together with you and your spouse and go through a marriage Bible study once a month or so, or view a marriage video for several weeks. We even have an article on the Marriage Missions web site titled "Use Our Web Site for a Small Group Study" that could give you some ideas on how to do this.

  ~ Write a marriage strengthening article to submit where God leads you [Marriage Missions is always looking for additional articles and testimonies that can minister]. Or you can go onto a web site that has blogging capabilities (such as Marriage Missions) and as the Lord leads, share some comments after the appropriate article, to encourage and help others in their marriage journey.

  ~ Ask God to help you to see opportunities that come your way in which you could invest in your own marriage and in the marriages of those around you, that could use the encouragement. 

This is not an extensive list. There are many, many more ideas you can implement.

We pray you will. "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers" (Galatians 6:9-10). "Therefore encourage one another, and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing" (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

  May the Lord bless your marriage and help you to pass the blessings on to others,

Cindy and Steve Wright

  If you think of others who may benefit from these weekly messages, please forward this to them and encourage them to subscribe to this FREE ministry. To
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"subscribe" to the appropriate groups. Every week we add new articles to the web site, so return often because you'll find other helpful marriage information as well as the previous Marriage Messages. www.marriaagemissions.com

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