Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I say this as a concession, not as a command. I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. I Corinthians 7:1-7
A happy marriage is a gift from God. To take two distinctly different people and unify them in devotion, affection and contentment takes an act of God. Attraction in a marriage is natural and appropriate. The mystery of the physical intimacy between a husband and wife is to be respected, welcomed and kept sacred. Human touch is healing, encouraging, comforting and, in the marriage bed, exhilarating. It is not to be abandoned or the unity begins to crack. A couple that does not touch each other may soon find that they do not want to touch each other. They open the door for Satan to sow seeds of discontentment and temptation.
Those of us who have loving marriages wish everyone could find it, but those of us in difficult marriages wouldn’t wish it on our worst enemy. Without the mystery of divine unity, marriage is just two distinctly different people trying to find common ground.
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