Husband And Wives Series

RELATIONSHIPS – HUSBANDS AND WIVES

In the movie The Poseidon Adventure, the ocean liner S.S. Poseidon is on the open sea when it hits a tidal wave and tips over. Because of the air trapped inside the ocean liner, it floats upside down. In the confusion, the survivors can't figure out what's going on. They scramble to get out, mostly trying to climb the steps to the top deck. The problem is, the top deck is now 100 feet under water. In trying to get to the top of the ship, they drown. The only ones who make it are the few who do what doesn't make sense. They do the opposite of what everyone else is doing and descend into the dark belly of the ship until they reach the hull. By going ‘down’, they reach the ocean's surface. Rescuers hear them banging and cut them free. In marriage, the only way for us to find freedom is to choose what doesn't make sense: lay down our lives for our spouses. We must go down to go up. Freedom lies in submission.

Eph 5:21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church-- 30 for we are members of his body. 31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." 32 This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Marriage is a remarkable thing. Only God could create an institution that takes 2 very different beings (a man and woman) and unites them together for life. It is crazy when you think about it, yet it is God’s design. God took something from Adam when He made Eve. In marriage these 2 parts are brought back together.

Marriage is not easy. Someone once said, "marriages may be made in heaven but the maintenance must be done on earth." For marriages to survive, they require regular maintenance. They require effort. Someone else said “One thing I know is that marriage is made in heaven, but then again, so is thunder and lightening.” It is no surprise that so many end in failure today.

A golden anniversary party that was thrown for an elderly couple. The husband was very moved by the occasion and wanted to tell his wife what he thought of her. However, she was very hard of hearing. With many family members and friends gathered around, he toasted her and said, “My dear wife, after 50 years I’ve found you tried and true!” Everyone clapped for them, but his wife was a little irritated and asked, “What did you say?” So he repeated it again louder: “AFTER 50 YEARS, I’VE FOUND YOU TRIED AND TRUE!” The wife was now visibly upset and shouted back, “Well, let me tell you something, after 50 years I’m tired of you, too!”

Part of what makes marriage so hard is that men and women are very different. I once read: what women want: To be loved, to be listened to, to be desired, to be respected, to be needed, to be trusted, and sometimes, just to be held. What men want: tickets for the World Series.

God has created men & women in such uniquely different ways. A while back there was a debate on whether computers are male or female, and should be referred to as ‘him’ or ‘her’. One list came from a number of male computer scientists felt computers must be female since:

- No one but their creator understands their internal logic.

- The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else.

- The error message, "bad command or file name" is about as informative as "if you don’t know why I’m mad at you, then I’m certainly not going to tell you."