Love is a choice. It’s not about finding my “soul mate.”
- Malachi 2:14. Notice the phrase “wife by covenant.”
- Colossians 3:19. The very fact that God is commanding this implies that husbands have a choice: love or be bitter.
- I Peter 3:1. Some men are nice even if they’re not Christians. But others are not. Either way, the wife is told to choose and control her behavior.
- I Corinthians 13:4-7. Love is not based on the feeling of the moment. Love does what is right.
- Romans 5:8. Vine comments on this verse in his dictionary: “It was an exercise of the divine will in deliberate choice, made without assignable cause save that which lies in the nature of God Himself.”
Keep strengthening your relationship through all of life’s stages and changes.
- Dating
- “Now Jacob loved Rachel” (Genesis 29:18)
- “Joseph … along with Mary, who was engaged to him” (Luke 2:4-5)
- Early marriage
- “When a man takes a new wife … he shall be free at home one year and shall give happiness to his wife” (Deuteronomy 24:5)
- “rejoice in the wife of your youth” (Proverbs 5:18)
- Kids
- “children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward.” (Psalms 127:3)
- “teach … your sons” (Deuteronomy 6:7)
- Empty nest
- “leave his father and his mother” (Genesis 2:24)
- Grandkids
- “Grandchildren are the crown of old men” (Proverbs 17:6)
- Old age
- “youth, before the evil days come …” (Ecclesiastes 12:1)
- Loss
- “Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah” (Genesis 23:2)