Serendipity Sunday: Love and Marriage .....

Serendipity: Making a delightful or unexpected discovery

"Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." ~Mark 10:9 (NKJV)~

This weeks delightful discovery was movie my husband and I watched together last night, Fireproof, starring Kirk Cameron. Most of you have probably already seen the movie as it has been out for a while now. I am not a huge movie buff so I did not see it when it came out. The movie is about a fire fighters struggling marriage and how having a Christ centered heart and home can impact one of the hardest roles in life, that of husband and wife.

I know a young couple about seven years into their marriage that have hit a rough patch in the road and their marriage is on the skids. After seeing this movie, I intend to encourage them to watch it together.

I wish I had begun my own marriage with Christ at the center. We were five years into our marriage when we almost gave in and gave up. My husband recently told me that had it not been for my determination to make things work out that he would have given up. It was a long hard struggle to make it work. The real blessing came to our home when seventeen years into our marriage we came to know Christ. Through His redeeming power we were able to begin build on a new foundation of faith and everything changed...for the better.

One of the movie quotes says, "Fireproof doesn't mean that a fire will never come, but that when it comes, you'll be able to withstand it." Marriage is hard work and often love is a choice rather than a feeling. No marriage is fireproof, the marriage itself, as well as each partner, will be tested, tried, and refined over time. As this is a movie about fire fighters, one of the richest quotes in the movie says, "I have learned that you never your leave partner ~ especially in a fire." This quote can be directly applied to a marriage situation. It would be so easy to walk away in the heat of the moment rather than to stay and fight to put out the flames that lick and burn at all marriages.

There are some principals in this movie that can be applied to even the best of marriages and my husband and I had a long discussion about that last evening. Even in a good marriage you can take one another for granted or forgo those little courtesies or extra acts of kindness and expressions of love that let your partner know they are valued and appreciated. We intend to dare to love one another differently than we have in the past or even in the recent present.

I will be honest with you, the acting is pretty bad but the message of this movie is so powerful. By the time the credits roll you really will not care about the acting ability because you will be too busy feeling your own feelings and thinking you own thoughts about your own relationships. This movie moved my heart, provoked my thoughts, and propelled me into prayerful action. I give it a two thumbs up!

A Marriage Prayer:

Bless our love, Oh Lord, we pray,
Keep it strong by night and day;
Bless our marriage, firm and stout,
Keeping want and trouble out;
Bless the union and the call,
Let Thy peace lie over all;
Bless our hearts that they might prove,
Ever open to joy and love.

Bless our ideals, often shining and bright,
Letting in God's revealing heavenly light;
Bless the love a~blazing here,
With smoke ascending like a prayer;
Bless the love that dwells within,
Keeping our hearts pure and free from sin;
Bless our marriage that it might be;
Fit, O Lord, with eternal unity.

Blessings,
Miss Sandy