Parents' Companion Vol. 4

The main purpose of marriage is to help one another serve God. God the creator knows the immoral tendencies in man and the challenges it will pose to his obedience. Without marriage, it is difficult to serve God because marriage has streamlined a lot of issues which should have been conflicting to the life of a Christian. When we understand the proper reasons for marriage, we also understand why it is a mistake for people to marry for other reasons. In the social world, there is nothing wrong with divorce and remarriages for whatever reasons. But with God, it is only permitted in the case of adultery (Deuteronomy 24:1, Matt 5:32) St Mark's gospel chapter 10:1-12 talks about Christ's concept of divorce. Since marriage is a complementary relationship, couples may not have everything in common; they are joined together to complement the gap in each other. That difference in your views to life is what you should fill in for each other. We have different talents and abilities, no two people are the same even identical twins. Marriage is founded on mutual love. The journey through marriage is very long and sometimes rough; the sustainability depends on the grace of God. Gen 29:18, Eph 5:31, Rom 7:2, 3. In recent times, both couples are expected to be engaged in one form of career to generate income for life sustainability. With the presence of children, this activity can be challenging if not well planned and integrated into the parenting and marriage roles. In the different careers, the couples should aim at reaching the peak and have retirement plans. Even when there is no total retirement, activities must slow down during the middle and later marriage phases because of age challenges and new expected roles. Couples should be active when they are young to make much money for the development of their children and to enhance ease for children to leave for their homes. Couples should empower themselves to blend into the social requirements of each other's career, political, religious and cultural commitments. Inability to understand these issues usually cause discouragement from the other couple. Knowledge is strength and none is wasted, couples must prepare themselves to adjust easily to life opportunities that can come to them at any time. Because the couples are not significant individuals today does not dispute eminence for tomorrow. It is our strength and support for each other that will create eminence for us tomorrow. Couples should always see the uncovered greatness in each other and take the pride to help to discover them. Life journey have bends, gallops and terminals and couples should empower themselves to understand the signs and coping strategies. At the later age of marriages, couples should be equipped as elder statesmen/ women, counsellors, cultural and religious leaders/ custodians of different laws etc. Even when a partner is diseased, the other partner should move on in life, despite the challenges; this is one major advantage of self-empowerment.