Here I Stand

"My kids are on my nerves. Frustrating me and not making me happy. I deserve to be a happy parent! There has to be more for me as a parent than this! I need new kids. I'll leave these and get new ones."

Sounds absurd? Of course it does. Now take the word KIDS and replace it with SPOUSE.

Equally as ridiculous, no?

Marriage is to be HONORED AND CHERISHED. A child shouldn't be thrown away and neither should a marriage.*(borrowed from Kris Washington)

When I read the above status from a facebook friend it really struck me.  Did it strike you? Walking away from my marriage is as absurd as walking away from my kids.

I choose to stand for my marriage because I choose to stand in obedience to what God's Word says about marriage.  I choose to honor the vows that I said.  When I stand before the Lord, I will answer for my choices & my obedience.  Why would I stop honoring what I said just because he is?  When did it start becoming accepted & normal for 2 wrongs to make a right?  Why in the world would I settle for less than what God designed marriage to be?  Because my one flesh partner is consumed with sin?  When did it become ok to walk away from the drowning person just because it might be "too hard" on me to wait for the rescue to happen? Is there a better example of worse in "for better or worse"?

These situations are exactly where God calls me to stand up and live out His Word - not just talk the good sounding faith talk. Anyone can talk it, but how many really live it?  I stand for what God says.  I'm not going to be some weak person who caves to the world just because it's become the norm.  My desires are not going to be small & weak because my God is big & strong.  Nothing is impossible with God (Matthew 19:26) He alone will give me the strength to stand.  

Standing is not settling.  Standing is not denial.  Standing is refusing to be easily pleased with worldly desires.  Standing declares that God - He is big and mighty and strong and He will carry out His will.  I won't walk away from Godly truth & be content to play in the mud.  Because of my obedience to walk according to His ways, I know what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. And all of the glory will go to Him alone.

If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is not part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

C. S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory