IN OUR HOME...

One of my favorite possessions is a long wall hanging in our hallway. It speaks the values my husband and I have had in our home since our beginning. And my parents raised me in just such a home. It says:

                With just a tiny tweak or two, that would aptly describe any home where grace and truth are in place, the home for which every heart longs. When a family works as it was designed, one can be sure grace and truth are always central to its success. The family is key unit intended to impact the world, and the key unit in the family as God originally designed it is husband and wife. When this relationship is right, everything else has at least a fighting chance.

            When we struggle in our marriages, we usually run to the next book, program, formula that tells us “If I do this, then he will do that." We love formulas and programs because they make us feel like we have control. But ultimately, formulas fail. Marriage is not a math problem. Formulas feed expectations, and unmet expectations are an expressway to resentment. Instead of trendy manipulations, we would do best to head for beefing up our commitment to truth and grace. Truth is giving and receiving what is real, and grace is giving and receiving unmerited favor and blessing. Put them together, and you have an invitation to authentic intimacy, the craving of all hearts in relationship.

            If we're honest, we can admit that marriage has the potential to be the most difficult of all relationships. The apostle Paul has taken considerable heat over the centuries for saying that anyone who marries will have many troubles in this life (I Corinthians 7:28), but he wasn't a marriage hater. He was a realist. Marriage unites two wildly different sets of hormones, two diverse personalities and perspectives, two extremely varying temperature preferences, and a host of other individual characteristics, then expects them to live in peace and harmony.

           The coup de grace is that the husband and wife are two adult sinners who usually add a couple of little look-alike sinners to the mix. Of course there will be many troubles.  Unless and until the truth- and-grace thing takes hold."Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Hebrews 4:16 (NIV) That's not a formula. It's an invitation to get the help we need for our relationships.(taken from Grace and Truth,  by Brenda Mason Young, (2013, Barbour Publishing, Inc.) pp.115-117