Marriage & Taco Bueno

So I had a few minutes this morning while Grace was snoozing and I picked up "Sacred Marriage." Blew my mind!!! How I would love to have Gary Thomas over for dinner and pick his brain, it would be such a treat for us!

Today he utilized Marriage as a tool, in which God uses to teach us to love. Gary talks about how God calls us to love others, which is great... I have been involved in camping ministry, youth ministry, etc. Check! I love others, Well... All of that is easy, but what about the "others" who are not as "fun" to love? Like the homeless.... It has always been easy for me to love on kids, but how often have I stopped to help the homeless?

I like the way Gary put it: "On one level, it's easy to love God, because God doesn't smell. God doesn't have bad breath. God doesn't reward kindness with evil. God doesn't make berating comments. Loving God is easy, in this sense. But Jesus really let us have it when he attached our love for God with our love for other people."

And how does that relate to marriage???

"In the marriage context, we have absolutely no excuse. God lets us choose whom we're going to love. Because we get the choice and then find it difficult to carry out the love in practice, what grounds do we have to ever stop loving? God does not command us to get married; he offers it to us as an opportunity. Once we enter the marriage relationship, we cannot love God without loving our spouse as well."
-Gary Thomas

While reading Gary's thoughts on that topic, I was sent back to a time I was 8 and sitting in the backseat of my mom's car. We had been out shopping all day with my mom and we had stopped at Taco Bueno to grab a bite to eat on our way home. My mom let me order what I wanted but she ordered for my younger siblings since they were still too little. I remember my sister Whitney was upset because she wanted to order for herself since I had gotten to. Finally after my mom settled the dispute and we had pulled out of the drive-thru... I had a realization... As I opened my order... That I didn't like what I had and wished I had opted to let my mom order for me too... What the other three were eating certainly looked more appetizing... I began to complain, and my mom stopped me right there, and said, "You begged and begged to order yourself, now that is what you are going to eat." I am pretty sure I pouted the entire way home. God blesses us with the decision to choose whom we marry and sometimes I think when times get rough we still want to be 8... But we aren't, we are adults and yes, sometimes that means the hard thing is the right thing...

Right now, for me, my marriage is young and love is still new and exciting! But I know with decades to come that these lessons will be ones that  will help us push through the trials ahead. Marriage wasn't designed to make us happy, but holy, and somehow in return I think that is what makes us truly joyful!