It's happened again

It’s happened again. A minister has fallen. A marriage has failed. A wife is hurt. A church is devastated.

It is becoming all too common. But it never fails to shock me. I didn’t even know this guy, but I know the church. I hurt for these people. People who looked up to him, people who listened to his sermons week after week. There is a sense of sorrow. And there is a spark of anger.

But after a week of thinking about this, praying for those involved and having some time to reflect, I come to the same conclusions each time this happens. As someone close to me once said, “We are all just a millisecond away from doing something really stupid.” It is arrogant to assume that I will never do anything this bad. At least, it is arrogant to say that on my own I won’t fail like this. Or that my husband on his own will not fail in some public way.

I heard a sermon this week that mentioned that we are powerless against sin (Romans 5). At least “on our own” we are powerless. We do have ONE who is powerful who can help us, and He will. Yet, we have some responsibility to continue learning and growing and nurturing our spiritual lives, and at the same time put the necessary hard work into our marriage relationship.

So instead of being judgmental toward this latest brother who has fallen, I need to continue to pray for him and also realize that we are all sinners. I also need to thank God daily for the man I married and to ask Him to help us to stay alert in our own marriage so that we may not only avoid a tragic situation, but that we will have a joyous and blessed lifetime together, serving our Savior.

Over the next couple of weeks, Lori and I will post some tips and thoughts we’ve read about or learned from experience that may help to encourage you to strengthen your marriage relationships. Feel free to comment and post some of your own as well!