No Filter Required

Day 27 reading assignment
Exodus 4:1-5:21
Matt 18:1-20
Psalm 22:19-31
Proverbs 5:15-21

Our oldest grandson, Kyle, is a senior in high school.  He recently interviewed us for his Family Health class.  He needed to ask the question: "What advice would you give me if I was getting married?"  He was to interview couples who had been married over 10 years, 20 years and a newlywed couple who had been married less than 3.  We were the over twenty couple and I was a little nervous about what his grampa would say, but he had to ask us seperately so I had to shed my co-dependence and let those chips fall where they may.  Grampa Brent is a fairly outspoken guy with the sense of humor of a teen-age boy and can be prone to some pretty rich "potty talk".  I constantly remind him to engage some kind of a filter but usually to no avail.  It is his filterless qualities that our Kyle loves so much.  I was very appropriate of course with my advice and bored the poor kid to tears.  After the interview I peeked at Brent's answer and was surprised at the depth of it but as I read on he of course ended it with the important role that sex plays inside the marriage.  I smiled and rolled my eyes realizing the predictability of this man I love.

The application to the reading in Proverbs today said: God never intended marriage to become boring, lifeless and dull.  Sex is a gift God gives to married people for their mutual enjoyment.  Real happiness comes when we decide to find pleasure in the spouse God has given us and to commit ourselves to meeting his/her needs.  The real danger is in doubting that God knows and cares for us.  It is then that we may resent His timing and carelessly pursue sexual pleasure without His blessing. 

It always blows me away when I read the Old and New Testament simultaneously and see the correlation of the two.  The application in Matthew 18:8,9 says :We must remove the stumbling blocks that cause us to sin.  Not to literally cut off our limbs but any relationship, practice, or activity that will lead to sin, should be stopped...cut off.   I relate this to the marriage relationship especially.  There are marriages failing everywhere and many times because of a third person.  It isn't conceivable that on that day we commit to one person for the rest of our life, that we will never be attracted to another person other than our spouse.  At the point that a friendship with another person starts going beyond what is platonically appropriate, it may be time to cut off  that relationship completely.

I was trying really hard to come up with something profound that Kyle might actually hear and remember.  We want to see our kids happily married and this could very well be the only time he comes asking for advice.  I prattled on with something about expectations...I can't even remember now.  But Brent nailed it without even trying.  He wasn't trying to be funny or profound, just saying what he knows to be true very much like what I read today in Proverbs.  The only difference being, Proverbs said it with the filter engaged.