and a couple of nights in a cabin at the Buffalo National River 
While in these areas we plan to hike and visit flea markets. On Thursday we will celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary.
Because we both have had multiple marriages many told us they were doubtful we could survive being married. Why have we been able to make it to 24 years without our marriage failing like the others? Good question and I have only two reasons to share with you.
1. From the day we got married until now we have been committed to staying together and working through all of the tough situations we would face.
2. From the day we got married we invited Jesus to be a part of our marriage and by doing so allowed the Holy Spirit to mold our marriage.
We have had tough times but we have always fought to stay together.
Here are a couple of scriptures for you to consider just as we have:
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (The Message)
3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.
8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
Ephesians 5: 21 Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another.
22-24 Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands.
25-28 Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ's love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They're really doing themselves a favor—since they're already "one" in marriage.
29-33 No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That's how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become "one flesh." This is a huge mystery, and I don't pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.
These two scriptures helped us make it to celebrating 24 years of marriage. Simply put we have chosen to love each other more than ourselves and we have submitted ourselves to Jesus and to each other.
As a pastor here is the sermon I give at each wedding I perform:
MARRIAGE
In Genesis 1: 26-28 God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, And, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth." God created human beings; he created them godlike, Reflecting God's nature. He created them male and female. God blessed them: "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill the Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth."
29-30 Then God said, "I've given you every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth And every kind of fruit-bearing tree, given them to you for food. To all animals and all birds, everything that moves and breathes, I give whatever grows out of the ground for food." And there it was.
31 God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good!
It was evening, it was morning— Day Six.
We find in Genesis 2: 21-22 GOD put the Man into a deep sleep. As he slept he removed one of his ribs and replaced it with flesh. GOD then used the rib that he had taken from the Man to make Woman and presented her to the Man.
23-25 The Man said, "Finally! Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh!
Name her Woman for she was made from Man."
Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife. They become one flesh. The two of them, the Man and his Wife, were naked, but they felt no shame.
Woman was made from man’s rib and she is not to walk behind or in front but beside him. The institution of marriage was created and began by our Creator the Almighty God. In marriage _____and _____ you go from being two individuals with separate lives to being one unit with dreams together.
David A. Seamands said this about marriage: “Marriage is an adventure, not an achievement.”
LOVE
Paul describes love in 1 Corinthians 13: 3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. 8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
Love is not a feeling and people do not fall in love. Instead love is something we do and we grow in love. _____ and _____ you can show your love by living your life with the qualities mentioned above.
Here is something Martin Luther had to say about marriage: “_____ make _____ glad to come home and _____ make _____ sorry to see you leave.”
RESPOSIBILITIES
Ephesians 5: 33 No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That's how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become "one flesh." This is a huge mystery, and I don't pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband by respecting him.
1 Corinthians 7: 2-6 Certainly—but only within a certain context. It's good for a man to have a wife, and for a woman to have a husband. Sexual drives are strong, but marriage is strong enough to contain them and provide for a balanced and fulfilling sexual life in a world of sexual disorder. The marriage bed must be a place of mutuality—the husband seeking to satisfy his wife, the wife seeking to satisfy her husband. Marriage is not a place to "stand up for your rights." Marriage is a decision to serve the other, whether in bed or out. Abstaining from sex is permissible for a period of time if you both agree to it, and if it's for the purposes of prayer and fasting—but only for such times. Then come back together again. Satan has an ingenious way of tempting us when we least expect it. I'm not, understand, commanding these periods of abstinence—only providing my best counsel if you should choose them.
Robert Browning tells us how to have a successful marriage: “Success in marriage is more than finding the right person, it is being the right person.” _____ and _____ you have the opportunity to daily be the right person.
_____ you are to love your wife and _____ you are to respect your husband. Neither of you have the right to withhold from the other sexual pleasure, love or respect.
Please face each other and hold hands. When you say the following vows you are pledging to each other your commitment, devotion, love and respect.
Repeat after me:
I, _____, take you _____, to be my wedded wife. To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish 'till death do us part. And hereto I pledge you my faithfulness. With this ring I thee wed.
I, _____, take you _____, to be my wedded husband. To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to honor and to love 'till death do us part. And hereto I pledge you my faithfulness. With this ring I thee wed.
I encourage you to invite one other person to be a part of your marriage and that is Jesus through the Holy Spirit. The bumps in the road will be smoother if you do.
Through the powers invested in me by the state and church I pronounce you husband and wife.
I hope you find this post as an encouragement and that those of you who have had failed marriages find hope in what you have read.
Kat and I are now looking past this year and to celebrating 25 years next year and then if possible 30, 40 and 50 years of marriage.
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