The Foundation for a Successful Marriage

If you are building a house, the most important time is when you lay the foundation.

First you make sure the blueprints are right. You turn them in to the city for approval. You plan out the electrical wiring and the plumbing work, you make sure everything is right, and then you pour your foundation.

If your foundation is poured properly, you can proceed with the framing and the roofing and all of the subsequent work. But if you get the foundation wrong and it is not done as it should be, you are going to have to tear it up later and start again.

I know it is fun to decorate and choose paint colors and landscaping, but none of that is as important as laying the foundation. The same is true of marriage: the most important part of it is the foundation. We want to build our marriages on our relationship with God, using the Bible as our blueprint.

We have seen the films about how love is supposed to be. They call them "romcoms," romantic comedies. We have heard the emotional songs about love. We look at celebrities and perhaps wish we could have a life like theirs.

But if you use this culture, this world, or Hollywood as an example, you are not going to have a successful marriage. One day storms will come. Hardships will come. Temptations will come. Challenges will come. Health issues will come. And if the foundation of your marriage is not built upon the rock of Jesus Christ, it will not stand.

Don’t look to culture for cues on how to succeed in marriage. Look to a reliable source: the Word of God. The Bible tells us everything we need to know about how to have a strong and lasting marriage.