Me on Marriage

I heard someone say today, "We were not born with the ability to co-habitate with a partner, it has to be learned."  Amen sista, I thought. Then I thought, wait a minute, God made us to partner up man and woman, he even made our physical bodies to fit perfectly together like puzzle pieces, but I know she's right.  How can this be?  Then it hit me like a ton of bricks; God created in us the need to have a partner, but he did not allow us to be born with the know how to do it. 
We must CHOOSE to get that knowledge from him.  Of course the stand out word here is choose.  God wants us to choose him.  He wants us to choose to give our marriages over to him.  God is a gentleman, he's not going to barge in and say "You're screwing it all up, give me your marriage!"  No, he's going to wait and let us make that choice on our own.
Some of us make that choice from the very beginning.  I was at a wedding this past September, that brought tears to my eyes for the most wonderful reason.  I was priviledged to watch this young couple as they invited the Holy Sirit into their special day and handed over their marriage to God from the very beginning.  I am relatively close to this couple so I get to continue to watch as they hand their relationship over to God daily.  It is truly a pleasure to watch.  This is not to say they will never have trouble, they live in this world, and trouble is inevitable in this world, But they have built their foundation on the rock.  They will know where to go and what to do when the world hits.
My husband and I on the other hand, not so smart.  Our vows said all the right things.  I can't tell you how man times God was mentioned in our vows.  I went over those vows with a fine tooth comb.  God was going to be at the fore front of my wedding!  He was, he was front and center during the whole ceremony, right up until we walked out of the church, the doors closed behind us, and we promptly took control of our marriage.  Oh well, I had God all up in the ceremony, but forgot to take him home with us.
Next month will be Fourteen years since that day, so obviously there was a point where after much struggle and nearly losing each other, we did finally give our marriage over to God for real, not just ceremoniously.  At that point when we chose to invite God into our marriage he began to teach us how to co-habitate with one another.
It is so much easier to love someone from a distance than up close, in your face 24/7.  You weren't born with that know how.  Make God the leader of your marriage today, and if you've already done that, well, Happy Anniversary.