When "The One" Becomes the One and Only Thing on Your Mind: Idolizing Weddings and Marriage.6/13/2016 "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." ~Proverbs 16:9 With the warm spring months turning into summer, more and more weddings are popping up. That’s right, I said it: Weddings. Many couples are moving forward to marriage and their elegant pictures are appearing all over Facebook, Instagram, and other social medias.
Marriage is difficult for me. I love marriage. I love how God has designed marriage and I look forward to cherishing His design of marriage one day. However, as I said, it’s difficult for me. My parents got divorced when I was in 2nd grade. My image of marriage became distrust, fighting, unfaithfulness, and a foggy road. Since experiencing that heartbreaking moment of my life, where my parents sat me down and told me they were getting divorced, I made a conscience decision to change my image of marriage. Marriage was restored to me when I became a Christian. I read God’s design for marriage in the bible and reached clarity in understanding that all marriages need a strong foundation. That strong foundation is God. God loves us. In the bible it says, “anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8). What a bold statement! While I admit to feeling love for other people and enjoy the thought of being loved in return by them, I can’t help but think of the love God has for me and how unimaginably excellent that love is! God is love! If God is love, it only makes sense to seek Him. As it says, “but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). Before marriage is possible, we have to make a conscious effort to seek God with our heart and desire Him more than anything. And yes, more than a wedding. I have been making an effort to better understand marriage and how to make a marriage strong as a preventative measure since I come from a divorced family. That divorce devastated me and shattered my image of marriage. I knew that if I were to get married, I wanted to be sure it had a purpose and would last. I’ve started reading articles and Christian books about strengthening relationships towards the path of loving God and loving each other as God loves us. I’ve taken a marriage and family class at my college to further discuss these hot topics. But when I see images of people getting happily married, I can’t help but feel my heart start to desire a wedding and marriage. There’s a problem with this. Weddings and marriages can become idols. No really. Hear me out. They can. Weddings and marriages can become so important to us that they suddenly (or maybe not so suddenly) take a position above God so that we desire, love, and worship the idea of having a wedding and getting married. This is idolatry. Idolatry is sinful. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” (Exodus 20:4-5) I am writing this for a few reasons:
It’s hard when your heart starts to wander towards enticing things such as a wedding, but it is important to remember God, that He has a perfect plan for you, and that by making an idol out of something other than God, you may be taking away from God’s blessings that He is giving you right now! There will be a time for weddings and marriage, but remember that for anything to happen, we must first have a strong foundation. God is our rock and our foundation. Dare to seek God first and see what wonderful things follow! If you would like to read another article on idolizing weddings and marriage, click here. I also highly recommend the book Authentic Beauty by Leslie Ludy to further break idolatry and focus on the love God has for us! (I am not sponsored by the article or book, these are simply resources I have found and love) Thank you for reading. I pray that in writing this I can not only refocus my own heart to God but help direct you to Him, too! God bless! ~Jess
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There's a battle going on inside us. I have chosen, after much consideration, to spend my life fighting for God in a sinful and God-hating world. This blog tells that story.
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