EXPERIMENTING WITH MARRIAGE!

Committing to No Commitment

Channel surfing the other day, I came across a new reality show on the FYI network.  I'd heard about it but thought it too ridiculous to spend my time on until I caught a marathon.  After binge watching three episodes it irritated me enough to write about it. It's called, Married At First Sight!

Here's the premise: Three couples agree to be be scientifically matched by experts (a sociologist, psychologist, sexologist, and spiritualist) and then marry the best prospect sight unseen.  No kidding, they won't know the names or what their future husband or wife looks like until they meet at the altar on their wedding day!  

They have four weeks to decide whether they are in love and want to stay married.  During this time they have a wedding and honeymoon (they can choose to consummate the marriage sexually or abstain), get to know each other and move in together. It's all based on a Danish social experiment.  No prizes or cash payment is offered, singles volunteer for a variety of reasons but I guess because it is for the sake of science it's all fine!

Well as entertaining as this show can be and I suppose with our increasing desire for voyeurism and living vicariously through others this fits the bill; you've got to know that this is just another attack on traditional marriage!  (Genesis 2:24; I Corinthians 7:12-15)

Christians are fighting hard to keep marriage between heterosexual men and women, and now the devil throws another blow--the sanctity of marriage!  You've heard the preachers say it over and over, marriage is not to be entered in lightly!  It is a sacred vow before God.  A covenant relationship of love, commitment and unity.  Only to the Divine Godhead can it be compared. It is no Four Week Experiment! 

Arranged marriages are nothing new in the Asian and the Middle Eastern culture.  You can find many biblical examples like Isaac and Rebekah in Genesis 24.  Ruth and Boaz in the book of Ruth but God was the Matchmaker not scientists! In each case love, loyalty, respect, and relational roles were established by Holy writ. Not scripted for Nielsen ratings or someone's guilty pleasure.

Listen, I'm speaking from over four decades of marriage. I've learned much from my marital experience and still learning new things about my husband after all these years.  We had no prenuptial agreement, no trial period to see if we were sexually compatible; no personality tests or psychological screening (well, that last one might have been helpful....only kidding!)  We just had God and tenacity.  His word and  growing faith that we could and would make it past all the storms, trials and set backs we knew would come! 

If you want a marriage, a true God-blessed one, you've got to do it God's way!  It isn't Married at First Sight.  It Doesn't Take A Church (another relationship show)....It takes God!  Take it from someone who knows!

(For the next six weeks I will be blogging on insights from a women's bible study starting at my church tomorrow,  Kingdom Woman, Embracing Your  Purpose, Power, and Potential by Tony Evans and Chrystal  Evans Hurst.   You don't want to miss it!)