Commitment

We went to our churches couples retreat this weekend and though we didn't learn anything life changing. I was reminded of what was said to us on our wedding day. Our pastor talked about love, of course, but he also talked about how we were making a covenant. And what that meant, a covenant is an agreement between two people and God. It's a bigger deal then just two people deciding to hang out and live together and do life together. It means giving it all you can and putting each other above all others. I remember him saying that there are days when you love your spouse and it's easy to be married and be together. But there are other days when it's not so easy. When you don't really want to be married or love each other or consider him above yourself and those are the days the commitment comes into play. You have to be committed. So many couples that emphasize how they "feel" but feelings change. They are always changing, through good times and bad, crisis and smooth sailing, plenty and in want, all kinds of things affect how we feel. So we all make conscience choices all along the way that are in the best interest of our marriages. It's so important for couples to continue to work on your marriage and be committed to each other.
We live in a very non-committal society. I'm as guilty as anyone else. Everyone waits until the last minute to commit even to small things. We see an out clause in everything. We sometimes even build them in. It's so important to intentionally make the mental switch with our marriages. When Chris and I were dating I explained to him that to me marriage is a one time thing. I lived through and saw my parents heartbreak when they got divorced and at 13 when they ended things I decided I would never, no matter what, get divorced. I think you have to have that mentality. Because people are fallen and we make wrong choices. If there's no commitment then marriage is just like anything else that you can change in and out of, why bother?
It was a good reminder for me to remember to choose my marriage and to choose to make it a priority, so I thought I'd share it in case any of you might need to be encouraged.