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Renewal of Marriage Vows

Ceremony, instructions and ideas.

The Jesus MeetUp    Love | Wedlock     Week 7

Love: Wedlock  

“Marriage is honorable…” ~ Jesus

167:5.7 Jesus said: "Marriage is honorable and is to be desired by all men. The fact that the Son of Man pursues his earth mission alone is in no way a reflection on the desirability of marriage. That I should so work is the Father's will, but this same Father has directed the creation of male and female, and it is the divine will that men and women should find their highest service and consequent joy in the establishment of homes for the reception and training of children, in the creation of whom these parents become co-partners with the Makers of heaven and earth. And for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall become as one."

Our Paradise Father and Jesus, our Master, have never intended for us to live single lives just because Jesus did so. Jesus is telling us here that the HIGHEST and BEST service and joy could be found in the paring in loving wedlock and creating homes with the raising of children. When Jesus uses the word “honorable” we should take note!

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Truly, it is not good for man to be alone!

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160:2.6 Mutual self-expression and self-understanding. Many noble human impulses die because there is no one to hear their expression. Truly, it is not good for man to be alone. Some degree of recognition and a certain amount of appreciation are essential to the development of human character. Without the genuine love of a home, no child can achieve the full development of normal character. Character is something more than mere mind and morals. Of all social relations calculated to develop character, the most effective and ideal is the affectionate and understanding friendship of man and woman in the mutual embrace of intelligent wedlock. Marriage, with its manifold relations, is best designed to draw forth those precious impulses and those higher motives which are indispensable to the development of a strong character. I do not hesitate thus to glorify family life, for your Master has wisely chosen the father-child relationship as the very cornerstone of this new gospel of the kingdom. And such a matchless community of relationship, man and woman in the fond embrace of the highest ideals of time, is so valuable and satisfying an experience that it is worth any price, any sacrifice, requisite for its possession. ~ Rodan of Alexandria, a great philosopher and follower of Jesus.

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Our amazing philosopher-ancestor Rodan of Alexandria is included in our

Urantia Book for good reasons.

His summation of the value and nobility of marriage and home-building gives emphasis to what our Master has said. Our characters are built stronger due to the personal development that comes from living in the matchless ideal of loving marriage with one other person. This is so emphasized as for us to understand how our Father loves each of us.

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Marriage stimulates the highest potentials in human nature.

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84:7.28 Marriage, with children and consequent family life, is stimulative of the highest potentials in human nature and simultaneously provides the ideal avenue for the expression of these quickened attributes of mortal personality. The family provides for the biologic perpetuation of the human species. The home is the natural social arena wherein the ethics of blood brotherhood may be grasped by the growing children. The family is the fundamental unit of fraternity in which parents and children learn those lessons of patience, altruism, tolerance, and forbearance which are so essential to the realization of brotherhood among all men.

We first come to understand the brotherhood of men based upon our experiences of love within our first family – our family from our childhood. These early experiences should bring forth our best path for our higher moral potentials.

Those of us who are older and married for a long time can laugh at this!

HOW TRUE!

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84:6.2 Every successful human institution embraces antagonisms of personal interest which have been adjusted to practical working harmony, and homemaking is no exception. Marriage, the basis of home building, is the highest manifestation of that antagonistic co-operation which so often characterizes the contacts of nature and society. The conflict is inevitable. Mating is inherent; it is natural. But marriage is not biologic; it is sociologic. Passion insures that man and woman will come together, but the weaker parental instinct and the social mores hold them together.

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Absolutely!

Marriage is not always easy. The marriage relationship challenges all of us on those basic levels of differences of personalities and genders that cause us to make those free will choices to love the other with patience, understanding, compassion and service. Here is where our souls grow as a result of struggles and difficulties.

83:8.7 The youthful idealization of marriage should not, however, be discouraged; such dreams are the visualization of the future goal of family life. This attitude is both stimulating and helpful providing it does not produce an insensitivity to the realization of the practical and commonplace requirements of marriage and subsequent family life.

Marriage may be a daunting endeavor with prior teachings

needed regarding disillusionment.

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83:8.6 Marriage always has been and still is man’s supreme dream of temporal ideality. Though this beautiful dream is seldom realized in its entirety, it endures as a glorious ideal, ever luring progressing mankind on to greater striving s for human happiness. But young men and women should be taught something of the realities of marriage before they are plunged into the exacting demands of the inter-associations of family life; youthful idealization should be tempered with some degree of premarital disillusionment.

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Marriage is not a religious ritual, as it is a social and civil institution

on our lower mortal level.

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83:8.1 Marriage which culminates in the home is indeed man’s most exalted institution, but it is essentially human; it should never have been called a sacrament.

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Pair marriages = couples consisting of two individuals

only incorporating rugged self-control.

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83:6.8 Pair marriage favors and fosters that intimate understanding and effective co-operation which is best for parental happiness, child welfare, and social efficiency. Marriage, which began in crude coercion, is gradually evolving into a magnificent institution of self-culture, self-control, self-expression, and self-perpetuation.

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Monogamy measures the progression of moral character,

spiritual growth and sentiments of true love.

83:6.7 Monogamy is the yardstick which measures the advance of social civilization as distinguished from purely biologic evolution. Monogamy is not necessarily biologic or natural, but it is indispensable to the immediate maintenance and further development of social civilization. It contributes to a delicacy of sentiment, a refinement of moral character, and a spiritual growth which are utterly impossible in polygamy. A woman never can become an ideal mother when she is all the while compelled to engage in rivalry for her husband’s affections.

Do we value our own personal growth when we are faced with the challenges of really loving our spouses with the kind of sacrificial love that Jesus has shown us as we look at the way He lived His life in loving others? Friends – our real challenges and struggles are most probably related to our own selfishness, pride and demanding-ness of the exalted self. Marriage provides the perfect laboratory for us to examine our own spiritual growth. Parenting together as committed couples brings a depth of maturity, understanding and recognition of how our own Paradise Father and His Son really and truly love US! May we take the time this week to contemplate the blessings of our spouses, the gifts of our children and the monumental benefits of marriage and home-building.

​To committing ourselves to be loving spouses ~ Marin DeJohn

Some questions to discuss:

1. Why did Jesus tell us that He did not need to be married?
2. Why does Jesus tell us that marriage is honorable?
3. What is God’s purpose for us in our marriages?
4. How should we teach our children and young adults regarding marriage? What should we tell them?
5. What are the benefits of marriage?
6. How important is the fact that our children are watching the ways in which we treat our spouses?

Now is a good time for us to say The Lord’s Prayer together.

Turn these sheets back in to your leader.

Feel free to write a prayer request and give it to your leader.

Next week we discuss Prayer vs. Worship Week #8

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When men search for God, they are searching for everything. When they find God, they have found everything. The search for God is the unstinted bestowal of love attended by amazing discoveries of new and greater love to be bestowed.