BEYOND “I AM IN LOVE” 10: ARE YOU READY TO SHARE ALL WITH HIM/HER?
On the 8th of May, 2024, my parents clocked forty-four years in marriage. Their marriage has been a great example to me and many others. Some six days before then, May 2nd makes it exactly twenty-six (26) years since we returned home from a family function and Mum announced to my Dad that she could not see him or anything at all any longer. This was after a long battle with glaucoma.
That night, I remember Mum sitting at the dining table. She heard Dad sniff like someone in tears. She asked if he was crying. Dad held on gracefully. He held to her hands and touched his own eyes with it. He said to her, “From today, these eyes are yours”.
I had the privilege of going with my Dad to visit one of the oldest patriarchs from my Mum’s family and I heard his testimony about him. He told his daughter before our arrival “Do they still make good like my Dad?” He told her that he had not seen a man like him. What an honour.
Beloved, the question you must answer is simple: Am I ready to share all that I have with him or her?
Think deeply about this. Will you be confident to hand over the password of your phone to him or her? If you cannot share the password of your phone, how would you be able to share your life with him or her? Are you willing to share access to your accounts or do you feel that is a no-go area? Marriage is not based on convenience, it is rooted in covenant.
Make sure you marry someone with a covenant sense and not someone who wants things done just as convenient. Marry someone who is not looking for the next exit door when there is a slight storm. Marry someone who knows that there is a weight of glory behind every light affliction.
Listen to what Apostle Paul said about marriage, yourself and your body:
The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
I Corinthians 7:4 NKJV
A wife belongs to her husband instead of to herself, and a husband belongs to his wife instead of to himself.
1 Corinthians 7:4 CEV
This is why it is clear that you cannot marry outside the covenant! The scriptures cannot be broken. If he or she is not born again and living under the Lordship of Christ, you are taking a personal risk. There are things that a disciple of Christ will never do.
A disciple of Christ knows that the standard is to love his wife like Christ loves the church, giving himself for her. A man that cannot give to you cannot give himself for you.
Marriage is not for the selfish. Marriage is for the selfless. In marriage, I have given my best is not an excuse as long as your best is not your all. Marriage means you share everything.
On a lighter note, there are days I have mistakenly used Irewamiri’s brush. We go ahead and we laugh over it. If it ever happens to you, will you throw the brush away? Will you become angry and irritated? Can you share everything with this person for life? If you cannot, you are not ready for marriage.
temilOluwa Ola, Eruwa