Guest post today and she hit it right one...one of my favorite parts (among many) is to never consider yourself above "falling"...never consider yourself exempt from falling into sin!
Fall is my favorite time of year. The beauty that is around sings the glory of a creative God who changes the seasons and colors the leaves in shades of brilliance. With fall often comes rain. This year seemed pretty soggy. When the rain falls and beads up on the leaves I am thankful for the shelter that we have been blessed with. And I started to think of other ways God shelters us and protects us. In my wandering mind I started to think about umbrellas. Let's think for a couple minutes on these contraptions. An umbrella has a rigid structure, and is covered in a soft cloth that gently arcs over you. The elements may come pouring down and we are protected simply because we choose to use a resource that is so readily available to us. I love parables and word pictures. Sometimes as humans we have a difficult time grasping the eternal and unseen. I am sure that is why Jesus spoke in parables. In our limited minds we need tangible situations to understand that which is infinite. What a teacher we have in Jesus! In his humility not only did he become a tiny baby, when he started his ministry he spoke to us in word pictures in ways we could understand. So let's briefly talk about the umbrella.
Through the marriage challenge you have read some great godly advice. I am not going to give you more to add on. We have plenty of guidance in God's word regarding marriage that has been discussed. I just want to put it in perspective for you. If you take all of what God tells us about marriage we can think of it as an umbrella over us and our husbands. When we diligently commit ourselves to do marriage "God's way" we have the resources that God gives us in his word to protect our marriage--an umbrella over us. I have told my boys that we have the Ten Commandments because God loves us and wants us to be full of joy and knowledge of him, serving him, and there are boundaries to keep us safe and away from harm both physical and spiritual. Protection from the elements. Regarding the many chapters and verses about marriage, we need to realize they are set in place to keep us close to God and our spouse, away from harm.
When we step away from God's protection we expose ourselves to those elements. God gave us protection for a reason, because he loves us and he loves marriage. The very first institution ever created was marriage. After the fall God did not send us out into the world without protection. As this world seems to get crazier by the day, use the shelter that God graciously gave you to protect your marriage. Doing marriage God's way doesn't mean we won't face the storm. It just means that we will use the resources God has given us to protect our marriage from the pounding rain.
The moment you feel you don't need that umbrella of protection, you start exposing yourself to the elements. Wandering thoughts, pride, bitterness, nitpicking, envy of other couples, wanting more...Never think you are above these thoughts. We need to be ready to take every thought captive, to imagine ourselves pulling back our thoughts under God's protection where they are replaced with the fruit of the spirit. And daily reminders are so important. Have you ever stopped to think how short our memories are? The Israelites had seen God's mercy before their very eyes in parting the sea and food literally falling from the sky to provide for their needs, yet they grumbled constantly--even going so far as to wish for their captivity back!! We are so quick to forget the mercy of our loving heavenly Father and how he provides for us. We need reminders DAILY, even hourly. I encourage you too look around for eternal truths that can be seen in things visible so we can have reminders that God is FOR us, he is FOR our marriage and he offers protection that is readily available. So grab your umbrella; you need it every hour. And remember that God gives us boundaries and instruction to protect you and your husband. We have what we need in God's word, all we have to do is use it. So walk with your husband under the umbrella of God's protection, giving thanks that he loves your marriage enough provide what is needed in the storms of life.
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