Actually we need to back up in order to go forward with this story. Let's back all the way up to when Mom and Dad met. In Held in God's Hand I mentioned that Dad had a quartet in college. While going through the house, we found one of the records he recorded. Which takes us to the Abilene Communitiy Auditorium in Fair Park in 1952. Dad went there to watch a concert of quartets. While there he literally fell in love at first sight. Dad was a college freshman and was engaged. Yet on that night he spied a beautiful young high school girl also in attendance at the concert. The girls name was Flosi. Flosi was with friends who told her "that boy keeps staring at you!" In today's world my dad might have been arrested for stalking a minor. Mom was a high school freshman. I don't know how Dad found out her name, maybe some of the friends she was with told him. But the lyrics of the
song by Richard Rogers "Some Enchanted Evening" Speak loudly to this relationship.
"Some Enchanted Evening:
Some Enchanted Evening, you may see a stranger,
You may see a stranger
across a crowed room ,
And somehow you
know, you know even
then.
That somehow you'll
see her again and
again.......
Fools give you reasons,
wise me never try.
Some enchanted evening
when you find your true love,
When you hear her call you,
across a crowded room,
Then fly to her side and make her your own,
Or all through your life, you may dream all alone.
Once you have found her, never let her go.
Once you have found her, never let her go.
This song from South Pacific was written in 1949. Apparently it stuck in his head as reality.
The next day, he (dad) went so far as to go to Abilene High and try to look her up. Yes, an 18 year old college boy hunting down a freshman high school girl on campus.Plus as you remember he was also already engaged to someone his own age.
Maybe he had no success at school so he began calling all the churches to try to find her and get her phone number. How he ever knew she was a church go-er much less the same religious affiliation he was I'll never know. He just knew, he felt it.
Now this is the dreamy love story for real that you only hear about in fairy tales. But, this was not a fairy tale, it was inspired by God. God has had a lot to do with choosing mates for this family. But those stories will wait for later.
When we began cleaning out the house at moms, we found what seemed like millions of love letters. Letter from him to her (James to Flosi) as they began dating all the way through their 50 plus years of marriage.
How many people do you know these days who marry with stardust in their eyes. They have weddings that look like royalty and feel like a prince and princess. But in today's world, some of those marriages don't last 6 months. Imagine spending ten's of thousands of dollars on a wedding just to throw it all away in 6 months or less.
Another thing different in the marriages of today is the lack of purity. Most couples live together before getting married. Some folks have sex on the first date, and others have babies and then decide to get married no wonder marriages don't last these days.
Marriage is hard, raising kids is even harder. People are spoiled, they want what they want when they want it without any consideration for others. Once again!
With this kind of attitude and sex before marriage (another selfish desire fulfilled) its a wonder that many relationships even hold out for 6 months.
Marriage is a threesome. Marriage has to be a threesome to survive. What does that mean exactly? Do we invite a third person into the marriage bed? Do we have kids to add to the newly wed couple? Well that was already mentioned and some people actually do both of these things. But NO! Marriage as written in Genesis was designed by God.
God is the great creator and after he created the heavens and the earth, he created man in his own image. Genesis 2:7 The Lord formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils. Genesis 2:18 says The Lord God said, "it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." The Lord God make a woman from the rib of Adams side. And Adam said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man." Genesis 2:23-24 "This is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh."
In the traditional marriage ceremony the man and woman make vows to each other and also to God. Most commonly known as one of those vows is "until death do us part".
In real life, marriage is not a fairy tale. There is no pixie dust and death do us part is often desired to be at the hand of the spouse. Now if youv'e ever been married for very long at all, tell me, haven't you ever whispered to yourself. UGH! I"M GOING TO KILL HIM FOR THAT! Of course these words are a paraphrase for something we truly dont mean. We still usually love our spouse, we just are having a really hard time living with them.
Marriage has to be a threesome in order to survive. ANY relationship where two or more people share living quarters will result in a difference of opinion, annoyance with habits that are irritating and tempers flare.
Lets go back to the garden again and take another look at Adam and Eve. Right away Eve got Adam into trouble by tempting him to eat from the one tree that God had strictly forbidden Adam to eat from . God provided and freely gave to Adam and Eve beautiful perfection created specifically to fill all their desires. There was only one thing that he told them they could not do. Genesis 2:16,17.
Selfish desire again..... temptation happened the new couple failed to be strong enough to put their selfish desires aside and the first sin was created. Disobediance to a direct command from God. I can just hear the two bickering like little children trying to blame each other "she made me do it".
#marriageisathreesome- what happened when Eve convinced Adam to eat from the ONLY tree in the entire garden that God strictly forbade? What caused that selfish desire to be so strong that self became first. That's right! God was put aside for self.
Marriage has to be a threesome in order to survive. God created man and woman how many are included in that sentence. FIRST there was GOD! Then there was man and then there was woman. Who was first? GOD! The couple can not survive unless God is first. The Lord God is a threesome all by himself. The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. ALL of these must be shared between husband and wife. The husband and wife are married to the Lord.
Part A