‘Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. “At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’” This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.’ Genesis 2:18-25(NLT)
Congratulations!
It says so much about you and your commitment to each other – right at the start of your preparation for marriage – that you are taking it seriously. You wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t.
After all, you’ve presumably taken the SYMBIS Assessment and you’re now walking through the results with your SYMBIS Facilitator.
Because you’re using this reading plan, we also know that you’re invested in finding God’s best as you launch lifelong love. This plan will add value to your SYMBIS Assessment by pointing you to a relevant Bible passage with each page of your SYMBIS Report. Read them in tandem with the pages you’re covering.
We begin with your “Marriage Momentum” – the aspects of your relationship that are working in your favor. Whether you scored high or low on this measure, or somewhere in-between, you need to know that the true momentum for marriage is found in knowing that marriage was God’s idea (see Genesis 2:24). He also made it clear that marriage was designed to be permanent (see Matthew 19:6).
And crucial to increasing your marriage momentum is knowing that God views marriage as a covenant, not a contract (see Malachi 2:14; Proverbs 2:16-17).
The difference? At least three:
- A covenant is based on trust between parties while a contract is based on distrust.
- A covenant is based on unlimited responsibility while a contract is based on limited liability.
- A covenant cannot be broken if new circumstances occur while a contract can be voided by mutual consent.
So as you begin your marriage preparation – and perhaps prepare for your wedding ceremony – what can you do in practical terms to ensure that your marriage is built on a covenant and not just a contract? How does this Bible passage speak into that?
from The SYMBIS Assessment Plan by Drs. Les & Leslie Parrott