Blueprint for Marriage - Two

Previously we found out that God's statement about marriage is found in Genesis 2:24. This statement directs husbands and wives to leave their fathers and mothers. What does that mean?

1. It does not mean that you abandon or utterly forsake them. (Note Exodus 21:12; Micah 7:9-13; I Timothy 5:8)
2. It does not mean you must move geographically.
3. It means your relationship to your parents must be changed by:
     a.  establishing an adult relationship with them;
     b.  being more concerned about your mate's ideas, opinions, and practices than those of your  parents;
     c.  not being slavishly dependent upon your parents for affection, approval, assistance and counsel;
     d.  eliminating bad attitudes toward your parents or else you will be tied emotionally to them regardless of how far you move from them; and
     e.  not trying to change your mate simply because your parents do not like him/her the way he/she is.
 
It means you are to make the husband/wife relationship your primary human relationship. Yes, we are to be concerned about our relationship with son/ daughter or father/mother, but primary relationship is husband/wife.

A NOTE TO PARENTS:

As parents, our goal should be to prepare our children to leave, not stay. Children kept at home so often become emotional cripples. On the other hand, we must be preparing ourselves for the day they leave by cultivating common interests and deepening our friendship with each other. Once they are gone, we must not try to run their lives but encourage our sons to accept responsibilities as head of the house, and teach our daughters to depend upon their husbands, not us, for guidance, help, companionship, and love.

Edited on:
07/01/2011