Washington Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president

This weekend I will be officiating at two different weddings. It has been fun to sit with the couples and talk with them about the future and what marriage is all about. It is fun to hear their stories of how they met, their first date, their first fight and the things they like about each other.

Having been married for more than three decades, it is fun to think about all the things they will really learn about each other as they spend the rest of their lives together. Newlyweds are so in love and so excited about the future even when they have no idea what the future holds. They just know they want to do the future together.

That is the most important thing that God wanted in the marriage. In Genesis 2 it says these words: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

He said if you are going to get married be sure and be a team. Be one together because together is really the only way the future will ever be can be faced in a marriage. Marriage is the most wonderful of institutions. But life has a lot of bumps in the road and if you are married those bumps are to be faced together.

For both married and the single individual, there is another text that carries one through life’s joys and bumps. 1 Corinthians 13 has these words that remind us how to live in our lives married or not.

As you go through your day and week, please remember that God loves you and that you can spread that love to all those around you.