Married First for God's Glory
by Gary Thomas
Knowing why we are married and should stay married is crucial. The key question is this: Will we approach marriage from a God-centered view or a man-centered view? 
In a man-centered view, we will maintain our marriage as long as our earthly comforts, desires, and expectations are met.
In a God-centered view, we preserve our marriage because it brings glory to God and points a sinful world to a reconciling Creator.
More than seeing marriage as a mutual comfort, we must see it as a word picture of the most important news humans have ever received - that there is a divine relationship between God and his people.
If I believe the primary purpose of marriage is to model God's love for his church, I will enter this relationship and maintain it with an entirely new motivation, one hinted at by Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians, "So we make it our goal to please him" (2 Corinthians 5:9).
Content taken from Sacred Marriage: What If God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy? by Gary Thomas, published by Zondervan Publishing. $12.49, Softcover.
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Does Your Spouse Value Gifts?
by Dr. Gary Chapman
 Most wedding ceremonies include the giving and receiving of rings. The pastor says, "These rings are outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual bond that unites your two hearts in love that has no end." That is not mere rhetoric. It is verbalizing a significant truth - symbols have emotional value.
Visual symbols of love are more important to some people than to others. That's why individuals have different attitudes toward wedding rings. Some never take the ring off. Others seldom wear their wedding band.
People have different love languages. If receiving gifts is my primary love language, I will place great value on the ring, and I will be emotionally moved by the other gifts you give me through the years. I will see them as expressions of love. Without gifts as visual symbols, I may come to question your love.
When you come home from a trip, if your spouse complains: "You didn't bring me anything?" Or, if your spouse seems deeply hurt when you forget to give a gift on a birthday, then you can know that his/her love language is receiving gifts.
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