Given December 26, 2008It was the strangest thing.  Most mornings, I wake up with a song in my mind; mostly contemporary Christian which I listen to often, but sometimes a song from my teenage years.  But this morning, when I awoke, this phrase was in my mind: “the seven most important things in marriage”.  It surprised me, then within a few seconds, the “things” began coming to my mind.  I rolled over, got my pen and pad and wrote the first four down.  A couple of minutes later, the next three came, then, after I thought it was done, an eighth item came.  What’s up with that?  More on that later.So, here are the first four of the Seven Most Important Things in Marriage:

1.         Love God.  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37.  This is the most important thing in marriage or anything in life.  I heard it said that as man and wife, who may be somewhat apart, draw closer to God, they draw closer to one another.

2.         Love the other person.  After putting God first, man and wife should always try to put each other first.  “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. “Philippians 2: 3-4.

3.         The man is the head of the relationship.  This does not mean the man is the boss or the dictator, but he should be the head.  “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 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. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.“Ephesians 5: 22-24.

4.         Money.  According to many sources, financial disagreement is the leading cause of divorce.  God says the love of money is the root of all evil, (1 Timothy 6:10).  Love or focus on money instead of on God is a major problem.  God will meet our every need, (Philippians 4:19) and, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33.

I will give the other three most important things in marriage in Part 2 of this posting.