Handmaidens - Love & Marriage

February 16, 2001

Love & Marriage

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Wedding Roars
Submitted by Viola Gilbert

A little boy was in a relative's wedding. As he was coming down the aisle he would take two steps, stop, and turn to the crowd (alternating between bride's side and groom's side).While facing the crowd, he would put his hands up like claws and roar. So it went, step, step, ROAR, step, step, ROAR all the way down the aisle. As you can imagine, the crowd was near tears from laughing so hard by the time he reached the pulpit. The little boy, however, was getting more and more distressed from all the laughing, and was also near tears by the time he reached the pulpit. When asked what he was doing, the child sniffed and said, "I was being the Ring Bear."

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When Did We Lose Love?
By Iona Hoeppner

When did we lose the meaning and depth of LOVE? We did lose it, you know... At least it seems so to me, and I think I've discovered a few of the causes.

Love was intended to be a life long commitment, but now people fall in and out of love without much thought and use that as an excuse to cast away a mate and devastate a family. "I don't love you any more," says one. Or another says "I didn't mean for it to happen, but I've fallen in love with someone else." And just like that a family is destroyed.

Love is not a fall, it's a choice! None of us are helpless victims being tossed in or out of love's warm glow. Not at all! We are thinking beings and can choose when to expose ourselves (or not) to the possibility of romantic love.

We've allowed the media -- no more than that -- we have encouraged the media to define infatuation, lust, or a "crush" as love. Worse than that we have readily bought into the lie that being "in love" with someone gives us the right to do all manner of harm and break any law, man's or God's, in order to "be" with the object of our affection... at least until someone new catches our eye.

Somehow we have forgotten that love is a choice and it takes constant nurturing. Love is a commitment... Read what God, the author of LOVE has to say about it...

Scriptures on Love
Compiled By Staff Writer Dianne Miller

I Corinthians 13 (NIV)
on Love
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries, and all knowledge and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall Sao face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully know.

And now these three remain; faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

John 13:34 (NIV)
on Loving One Another
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Acts 2:47 (NIV)
on contagious love
. . . praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Romans 12:9 (NIV)
on sincere love
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord, Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

I John 4:19-21 (NIV)
on the spreading of God's love
We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

The Top 14 Biblical Ways To Acquire a Wife
Submitted by Mary Mejia

* Find an attractive prisoner of war, bring her home, shave her head, trim her nails, and give her new clothes. Then she's yours. (Deuteronomy 21:11-13)

* Purchase a piece of property, and get a woman as part of the deal. (Boaz -- Ruth 4:5-10)

* Go to a party and hide. When the women come out to dance, grab one and carry her off to be your wife. (Benjaminites -- Judges 21:19-25)

* Have God create a wife for you while you sleep. Note: this will cost you. (Adam -- Genesis 2:19-24)

* Agree to work seven years in exchange for a woman's hand in marriage. Get tricked into marrying the wrong woman. Then work another seven years for the woman you wanted to marry in the first place. That's right. Fourteen years of toil for a wife. (Jacob -- Genesis 29:15-30)

* Cut 200 foreskins off of your future father-in-law's enemies and get his daughter for a wife. (David -- 1 Samuel 18:27)

* Even if no one is out there, just wander around a bit and you'll definitely find someone. (It's all relative, of course.) (Cain -- Genesis 4:16-17)

* Become the emperor of a huge nation and hold a beauty contest. (Xerxes or Ahasuerus -- Esther 2:3-4)

* When you see someone you like, go home and tell your parents, "I have seen a ... woman; now get her for me." If your parents question your decision, simply say, "Get her for me. She's the one for me." (Samson -- Judges 14:1-3)

* Kill any husband and take HIS wife (Prepare to lose four sons, though). (David -- 2 Samuel 11)

* Wait for your brother to die. Take his widow. (It's not just a good idea; it's the law.) (Onana and Boaz -- Deuteronomy or Leviticus, example in Ruth)

* Don't be so picky. Make up for quality with quantity. (Solomon -- 1 Kings 11:1-3)

* A wife?...NOT? (Paul -- 1 Corinthians 7:32-35)

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