WorldNetDaily.com

GREG LAURIE

November 07, 2009

I have never known a time when the family is under attack like it is today – from those who want to redefine what it is to those who simply want to undermine it. Our culture is largely hostile toward the family and everything it stands for.

And when it comes to marriage, I would venture to say that our society doesn't know anything about what it takes to have a successful marriage. Take, for example, Hollywood celebrities whose marriages seem to last for about eight minutes before they end in divorce.

If you want to have a lasting marriage, you need to find a credible source on the subject. And that credible source is the Creator of marriage – God himself. In fact, the Bible speaks clearly and directly about how to have a successful marriage.

I know a little bit about marriage and a little bit about divorce. Although I have never been divorced, my mother was married and divorced seven times. So for many years of my childhood, I observed what not to do in marriage. And later, when I was about to get married, I knew that I was making a lifelong commitment that I planned, by the grace of God, to keep.

Because I am a pastor, people will sometimes ask me to redo their vows. While I don't have a problem with this, I have never felt a great desire to redo my vows, because I haven't broken them. I think having said them once is good enough, because I meant my vows when I said them, and I know that my wife meant them when she said them as well.

I remember the day we got married as though it were yesterday. My wife was a vision of beauty, while I looked like something the cat dragged in. Not only did I wear the ugliest tuxedo ever made, but I had long hair and a big, bushy, red beard. As I look at our wedding photos now, I wonder what I was thinking. But my wife could see that underneath all that hair was a bald man.

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