Title: A Bad Marriage

   A bad marriage can depress the body's immune system. Unhappily married women have subnormal levels of white blood cells (which destroy infections) and increased herpes virus activity. Other immune system depressants: Stress and loneliness.

   -- Janet Kiecolt-Glaser

See:  Prov 4:20-23; Prov 5:18-19

Title:  Living Alone

   Across all ages and races, Americans who live alone die at a much higher rate. For example, divorced men in the under 65 ages group have considerably higher mortality rates for a number of diseases than their married counterparts. Their death rate is twice as high for lung cancer and strokes, three times as high for diseases related to hypertension, and seven times higher for cirrhosis of the liver.

See:  Prov 18:22

Title: One Flesh

   Another reason for where our young people are today is the lack of intimacy. A little over a year ago I debated the co-founder of Playboy on television for three hours. He agreed with me on this point. My statement was this -- we have not been through a sexual revolution. We have not. What we have been through in the last fifteen years has been a revolution in the search for intimacy. Most of our young people do not want the physical aspect of sex, they want someone who cares. They want to be able to care. They want intimacy. We have allowed our culture to dictate to us that the only way you find intimacy is through the physical -- and that's an absolute lie!

   One woman called me at a university. She said, "Mr. McDowell, in the last five nights I've gone to bed with five different men. I got out of bed tonight and looked back and said to myself, 'Is that all there is to it?'" and she started crying. She said, "Please sir, tell me there's something more!"

   I said, "Yes, it's called intimacy. It's what the Bible calls 'the two shall become one.'"

   -- Josh McDowell, Moody Founder's Week 1986.

See:  Gen 2:24; Heb 13:4

Title:  Little Defects

   You probably heard about the newlyweds. On their honeymoon, the groom took his bride by the hand and said, "Now that we're married, dear, I hope you won't mind if I mention a few little defects that I've noticed about you."

   "Not at all," the bride replied with a deceptive sweetness. "It was those little defects that kept me from getting a better husband."

See:  Prov 31:28-29; 1 Pet 3:7

Title: Never Saying Your Sorry?

   Movies may succeed with the idea that love is never having to say you're sorry, but I've never known of a marriage to succeed on that premise. Most lovers have to say, "I'm sorry" a great deal.

See:  Luke 17:4

Title: Wedding Vows

   A cartoon often communicates a volume of truth in a few lines.

   One cartoon before us shows a couple standing before the minister at the altar. The groom is reciting his "vows." They are brief: "First you're born, then you're buried. In between, let's get married!"

   The bride is thinking: "I never should have suggested we make up our own vows!"

   It has become popular for couples to make up at least part of their wedding vows. And that can be a very helpful procedure. But it might be beneficial if the pastor who is to officiate can look over those vows and suggest improvements!

See:  Deut 23:23

Title: The Brides Braid  

   Leadership magazine carried a short item sent in by Cathern Paxton that illustrates the importance of letting God be uppermost in the marital relationship. She wrote, "A braid appears to contain only two strands of hair. But it is impossible to create a braid with only two strands. If the two could be put together at all, they would quickly unravel. Herein lies the mystery: What looks like two strands requires a third. The third strand, though not immediately evident, keeps the strand tightly woven." Then Paxton concluded, "In a Christian marriage, God's presence, like the third strand in a braid, holds husband and wife together."

See:  Mark 10:9

Title:  Declaration of Interdependence

   We the People, here assembled, in order to form another perfect union, establish just this, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for common dependence, promote the general welfare and ensure the blessings of marriage to our posterity, do ordain and re-establish this institution for the United State of Matrimony.

   -- Henry C. Larrabee, Jr.

See:  Heb 13:4