Building Strong Marriages Through Faith and Character

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The man should be committed to growing in his relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, a husband should be an individual of obvious integrity. Thirdly, you need to look for a husband who is able to lead boldly. Fourthly, you need to look for a husband who displays the ability to love sacrificially. [00:01:16]

Humor is a vital element in preventing marital failure. The ability to laugh doesn't mean that he's the class clown or even a joke teller. In fact, he may be hopeless at telling jokes. That may be the funniest part about him, but it is important that he likes to laugh. [00:02:51]

It is the basis for any and all of the other qualities on the list. I can't overstate for you the importance of ensuring that you don't enter into an intimate relationship where one person is a Christian and the other is not. The Bible is clear: don't get unequally yoked. [00:06:24]

To be unequally yoked is to be unable to pool together. That means there are two divergent standards, two opposite goals, two radically different interpretations of life, two incompatible masters to serve, two contrary powers at work. Unbelief allied with belief in Jesus means just one thing: there can be no real intimacy. [00:06:43]

The importance of a gentle and a quiet spirit is almost unquantifiable. A wise fellow looks for a woman who possesses a natural radiance rather than a glow that comes from a bottle. It is less important to find a woman whose beauty comes from time spent in front of a beauty parlor than from time spent in the presence of the Lord Jesus. [00:08:27]

Any wise fellow is looking for a woman with ideas, abilities, hopes, plans, gifts, dreams, the whole panorama of abilities that she brings to marriage. Because in entering into marriage, in more areas than we're prepared to admit, we as the husbands will be dependent upon their knowledge, upon their insight, upon their courage, upon their faith, upon their expertise. [00:09:47]

God's intended role for a wife is not to wait around for her husband's directives or somehow or another she was paralyzed without them. You don't think that Adam and Eve in the garden, Eve was sitting around with a bunch of flowers saying, "What am I supposed to do with these?" [00:11:06]

The roles of husband and wife, in more ways than physically, are not in the scriptures interchangeable, and therefore certain expectations for the individual role of each other needs to be understood and worked out. [00:12:42]

We shall not become a bundle of frustrations and inhibitions if we embrace God's standard, but only if we rebel against it. Christ's yoke is easy, provided we submit to it. It is possible for human sexual energy to be redirected both into affectionate relationships with friends of both sexes and into the loving service of others. [00:21:02]

Alongside a natural loneliness, accompanied sometimes by acute pain, we can find joyful self-fulfillment in the self-giving service of God and other people. The chances are you will meet your mate in the next three or four years. Do not assume that a friendship has to be more than a friendship when it begins. [00:21:34]

Covenant before God that you will not add to the statistics, but God helping you, you will please Him whether in singleness or in marriage, living according to the principles of His word. [00:22:09]

Humor is vital. It's way up on the top of my list. Sixthly, and there are only six, a husband should model genuine humility. Humility keeps its focus on others. You need to watch and see if the other person can share the joy of a competitor's success. [00:03:44]

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