A Lasting Marriage is Like Shampoo

A Lasting Marriage is Like Shampoo

It is an assumption of this article that the reason for the marriage was love. People get married for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it is from desperation, sometimes convenience, sometimes for money, sometimes to seal a deal or to fulfill family obligations. Have you ever washed your hair when it wasn't dirty? Of course you have.

Many mornings I awake with bedhead so I wash my hair to untangle the mess so my hair doesn't appear matted down. Sometimes it gets washed just because I happened to be taking a bath anyway. The point is sometimes we wash our hair when it isn't necessary and truthfully, washing our hair may not be the best thing for it. Sometimes two people just shouldn't be married.

A young couple just got married. One old lady said “it won't last.” Maybe she's jealous. Maybe she thinks the couple may have gotten married for the wrong reason. I'm not sure what was her motivation for saying that. After all, the couple have been an :item” for five years now and have made their father's house their home. But it seems, where they live is the problem. The father has a leadership position in church and he was given the option of getting his house in order or resigning his position.

This mans first step was to tell his son and his girlfriend that they either had to get married or move into a place of their own. That answers the question of why they choose to get married now but it does open up another question: did they get married because they love each other or because they need a place to live? Why is it important that the couple get married at all?

The answer to that last question is simple. The world doesn't care but God does.

Remaining unmarried hurts the testimony of the father and is also a hindrance to his son and his girlfriend accepting Christ. It was a necessary and an important step in their relationship, in the stability of their home life and for their relationship to Jesus.

I know that he loves her. Some people have the money, the looks, the talent, and/or the personality to attract another to them as does poop to flies. But to others finding a suitable mate is a once in a lifetime option. This couple falls into the latter category so finding each other may be their only hope of finding love.

For them, remaining married may be easier than for the most attractive people for surely they have less opportunities for romance outside of marriage. Still, who wants to be stuck in a loveless marriage?  It is important to get that love fresh and alive. 

One must approach marriage just as one approaches shampooing their hair.

I hope it's obvious that on the day he proposed he was in love. I know that on the day I first met my future wife I was nervous and excited and was hoping I'd like her and that she would like me. I took a bath, shampooed my hair, cleaned my car, put on clean clothes and made sure I had my wallet with plenty of money. If I was attracted to her I wanted to impress her.

My wife and I have been married 10 years now. It doesn't matter if we are going out for a date or just to Hardee's for a burger. We could be going to the grocery store or to church. Regardless, I make sure my car is clean. I make sure I am clean. It is just as important to me now to impress her as it was the very first time we met. I am just as excited to see her in the morning as I was to see her on our second date. Making her happy is just as important to me today as it was the day I asked her to marry me.

There was sometime about me she was impressed with enough to fall in love with  and want to spend her life with me. I always want her to keep that impression. Whatever I did that caused her to love me is something I want to keep repeating. The directions on the shampoo bottle say wash, rinse, repeat. To keep a love strong, follow those directions: whatever you did that made someone fall in love with you, just keep repeating.