The Book of Sirach and Marriage - 8

(Sirach 10: 12-13) “The beginning of man’s pride is to depart from the Lord; his heart has forsaken his Maker. For the beginning of pride is sin, and the man who clings to it pours out abominations.”

The biggest mistake we can make in our life is to believe we are self-sufficient without God. Too often, we see our successes and accomplishments as our own doing. We take most of the credit (either out loud or in our own head) for things we’ve created, the products we have designed, the books we have written, the houses we were able to afford, and so on. All the while, we credit God with very little, if we remember him at all. Yet the reality, is God is the source of all of our talents, our skills, our opportunities, our creations, our learning from mistakes, for everything we have, and even for every beat of our heart.

This especially applies to our marriages. Too many of us try to succeed at our marital relationship void, or at best with a little acknowledgment, of God. I have seen so many couples in therapy that admit that they have abandoned their faith in God nor had any thought of Him being a part of their marriage. Or if they are of faith, they admit that they don’t pray as a couple and often find little time for God throughout the week. But the reality is that God wants our marriage to succeed more than we do. Our marriage covenant comes with a special grace from God that is ours for the asking, but sadly, so many rarely or never ask.

Marriage is hard enough as it is, but we make it ten times as hard when we leave God out of the equation. He wants us to find so much joy through this nuptial gift of our life to another and gives us the grace to pick ourselves us when we’ve fallen, pick up our cross, and to resurrect our love for our spouse every day, if we ask and allow that grace to transform us.

Please understand, I’m not talking pie in the sky, unachievable realities here. This is possible. I have witnessed with my own eyes, marriages that were all but destroyed, come back from the ashes, through two people willing to invite Christ back into their lives and to allow His grace to truly transform their lives.

ACTION STEP: This week, find more ways to make God the center of your marriage.