By Steve Higginbotham
While preaching in a gospel meeting, I had the opportunity to have lunch across the table from a little 8-year-old girl. I noticed she had a “diamond” ring on her finger so I decided to have a little fun with her. I asked her, “What does a girl get from a man who wants to marry her, and it begins with the letter “D.” She thought for a moment, and in all the innocence of an 8 year-old child, she said in an uncertain tone, “Disrespect?”
Ouch! Disrespect? Well, at first I laughed because she didn’t understand what she said. She was just grasping for a word that began with the letter “D.” But upon reflection, I’m afraid this little girl spoke more truth than she or I realized.
Statistics tell us that nearly 50% of marriages end in divorce. Then consider too, how many of the marriages that aren’t broken in the courtroom, are broken in the heart. Friends, we have work to do, and as I see it, that work consists of two things:
We must teach what God’s word says about marriage, and how the husband and wife are to treat each other (Ephesians 5:25-33).
We must also begin to model our marriages before our youth so that they can see what God intended marriage to be.
Marriage contains too much potential for good than to sit back and watch it be destroyed and dismantled by people who do not know the joy and fulfillment it can bring if it is done God’s way. We must begin to speak with our words and our deeds!
Men, when you asked the woman you loved to marry you, I trust you gave her a “diamond.”