Love and Marriage

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her."  Ephesians 5:25

Our pastor recently spoke about marriage.  His sermons were inspiring to me in many ways, and my husband and I sometimes felt he was speaking directly to us!  Yet, the most interesting observation of the marriage sermon was from my six-year-old daughter.
The pastor made a comment in his sermon that "husbands and wives should love each other more than they love their children."  My daughter, if she caught nothing else in that sermon, caught that one statement and found issue with it.  One night at bedtime she said, "Mama, I think I need to pray for the preacher because I don't like what he said.  God needs to have a talk with him!"  She questioned me for weeks about this one statement.  This past Sunday, she cornered the pastor before the service and wanted to hear his explanation.  He graciously responded to her, "If your parents love each other they way Christ loved the church, they will love you more than anyone else in the world."  That made her happy!
Marriage is not a destination but a journey, and one that you should take with the one person you cannot live without!  God loved us so much that He gave up His Son for us.  Stop and think about that statement.  Now do you love your spouse as much as Christ loved the church?  Are you and your spouse an example for your children of what a godly marriage should look like?