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Last Tuesday night brought the best of news to our doorstep. I'm not sure what out-sparkled the other: Jonathan and Shawna's smiles or Shawna's new diamond ring.
The long-anticipated, much-prayed-for moment made me scream (and then cry) with joy. My brother has chosen a girl who exceeds all my prayers and expectations; he could not have found a better wife. And Shawna is getting one of the greatest men in the whole wide world.
But they know all this already: that's why he got down on his knee and she said yes.
In their relationship, Jonathan and Shawna have modeled for us love, contentment, purity, selflessness, compassion, honesty, thoughtfulness, and servanthood. Some of Eddie and my favorite memories have been made with Jonathan and Shawna: from times of prayer in our home to side-splitting laughter on a road trip, we've come to love and respect these two for the classy and godly and fun couple they are.
So in anticipation of their wedding day—and as I pray for their marriage like I pray for my own—I share below some tributes to marriage that have encouraged me as Eddie and I have also begun this wonderful journey. I'm so excited to share this new season of life with my dear brother and his wife—my sister!
Dave Harvey in When Sinners Say I Do
When we begin to orient our marriages around biblical truth, we see something amazing. Marriage was not just invented by God, it belongs to God. He has a unique claim over its design, purpose, and goals. It actually exists for him more than it exists for you and me and our spouses.
That’s right. Marriage is not first about me or my spouse. Obviously, the man and woman are essential, but they are also secondary. God is the most important person in a marriage. Marriage is for our good, but it is first for God’s glory.
How easy it is to act as if husband and wife are the only relevant parties in a marriage. But marriage is ultimately about God. Moreover, marriage is most amazing not because it brings people joy, or allows for a nurturing environment for children, or because it stabilizes society (even thought it does all those things). Marriage is awesome because God designed it to display his glory.
The focus of a thriving marriage is the glory of God.
John Piper in This Momentary Marriage
Staying married is not mainly about staying in love. It is about keeping covenant. “Till death do us part” or “As long as we both shall live” is a sacred covenant promise—the same kind Jesus made with his bride when he died for her. Therefore, what makes divorce and remarriage so horrific in God’s eyes is not merely that it involves covenant-breaking to the spouse, but that it involves misrepresenting Christ and his covenant. Christ will never leave his wife. Ever. There may be times of painful distance and tragic backsliding on our part. But Christ keeps his covenant forever. Marriage is a display of that! That is the ultimate thing we can say about it. It puts the glory of Christ’s covenant-keeping love on display.
Elisabeth D. Dodds on John and Sarah Edwards
When one is falling in love, just to glimpse the other person catches the breath, quickens the pulse. The touch of the precious person brings a rush of response from flesh and heart. To have known such a period is to have lived in the mood of an armistice day after a war (to be totally responsive, with emotion close to the surface). But after marriage comes familiarity. In the case of the Edwardses, familiarity bred respect. The real test of the feeling of one person for another is in the daily encounters, when one must pay bills, carry out the trash, sniffle through a head cold. This period of homely testings disclosed to the couple that they were permanently committed to one another. So they turned now to translating their love into work, into a way of life.
Carolyn Mahaney in Feminine Appeal
Although we are both sinners, God is using our marriage to help us grow in godliness. In fact, our husband’s particular sins, unique weaknesses, and even their idiosyncrasies are tailor-made for us. Likewise, our sins and weaknesses are custom-designed for them. Both husbands and wives will become more Christlike by having to deal with each other’s sins and deficiencies.
We must settle this in our hearts. We married a sinner, and so did they. But this is the hope for our marriage: God forgives sinners and helps us grow to be like Him.
