Marriage
If you have a wedding coming up, the good news is that it is likely less expensive to pay for one today than ten years from now. Businesses that provide the latest in technology and gadgets to enhance the quality and longevity of your pictures and videos and those packages that sell to you the bridal gown, hair and makeup, and the wedding reception, photography, suite and limousine etc., will continue to reflect the higher labour and production costs. In this time and age a wedding can cost a huge fortune as the prices continue to escalate.
All over the world weddings are celebrated. You may have heard of certain interesting wedding traditions that are typical to a race or ethnicity which are a little amusing given the differences in backgrounds. Some of these mindsets however old fashion still work their way into modern times and across cultures. For instance, while we may not believe it is necessary to throw a huge banquet with all its magnificence, most people will be a little offended if their in laws are a little too frugal when it comes to the spending. This is especially true if their own son or daughter is getting married for the first time.
There is a famous wedding practice among a certain tribe in Africa whereby the brides receive cows as wedding gifts from their husbands. In essence, the more worthy the bride is the more cows she gets. A beautiful bride with a good amount of muscles and a strong bone structure is considered a good investment for the fields in an agricultural economy and for child bearing.
The practice of ‘pricing’ the bride or groom may or may not exist in every ethnicity in America but at some point, a bride may wonder if she deserves a more romantic wedding reception or honeymoon. Nowadays, it is also difficult to fix a wedding budget because loans are easily available. The temptation to spend on the “once in a lifetime event” may be hard to resist. Spending a good sum of money on our weddings does not mean that our worth is measured in monetary terms and a couple may want to buy each other gifts to express their love. With all the spending that is associated with a wedding, it may be worth our while to spend some time looking away from those price tags and consider that perhaps we too have our own price tag.
In ancient China, the groom’s family pays for the wedding expenses and gives gifts such as cakes, sweets, silver, gold and other precious items to the bride‘s family. All of this is known as the dowry and to put it in a less refined way the dowry is also known as the bride price. If the groom’s family is perceived to be fairly well off and the bride does not receive a good amount of dowry it is considered shameful because it means that her virginity at the time of the wedding is in question.
Today, people who get married bring with them their life experiences of all sorts. Some experiences are sweet, some bittersweet and still some others a little too bitter and so they are better left unsaid. Yet at the deepest recesses of their minds, some people are truly afraid that their marriages might not work out because of their past. A wedding is a beginning of a journey in matrimony but for some the regrets of a past abortion, or a failed marriage, or a secret struggle to overcome the temptation of pornography or prostitution etc., or the self accusation over the tragedy of having been raped or molested makes it difficult for him or her to believe that the future will be beautiful. If a relationship is about honesty then does it mean that being honest with oneself and forgiving oneself is just as important if not more important?
The value of not being condemned and being able to start afresh on a clean slate cannot be undermined, in fact it is priceless to those who are helpless to forgive themselves or to stop a habit or behaviour they know can destroy their marriage. At this point, I cannot but share a story I read just a few months ago. This story is about a lady who owns an antique furniture shop. One day, she decided that she would sell certain pieces of furniture on her floor at a discount to make room for the new pieces which she intended to bring in. As she went around the shop, a round mahogany dining table caught her eye. This dining table has always been dear to the shop lady but she felt that it was time to sell it. As she admired the wood and workmanship of this masterpiece, she had trouble determining the discount she would give. Finally, she decided to mark the original selling price down by 10 percent. When evening came, a man approached her and asked if she could sell the round mahogany table at a greater discount. He asked her for a 20 percent discount but she was only willing to reduce the price by another 2 percent. As the bargaining went back and forth, the shop lady began to realize even though it was time for her to sell the furniture to make more room in her shop, she also wanted to sell the table for what it was worth. It was only at that time that she decided to remove the discount tag as she explained to her customer the true value of the mahogany table. She realised that her problem began when she devalued her articles by offering any discount in the first place. The story ended with the man paying the full price for the table.
In life, it is hard not to lose sight of how much we are worth. Not many of us are blessed with moms and dads, grandparents, uncles and aunts or teachers and friends who affirm us and tell us about our worth. The hard knocks in your life might have left you thinking that you are not worth as much today as before. You may even despise or hate yourself because of the mistakes in your life or your current behaviour. The story on the shop lady and her furniture piece is taken from a Christian article about the true worth of every man and woman created in the image of God. This worth refers to man’s value before Adam fell in sin. The article goes on to say that if you do not know your worth, it is very unlikely that the world around you will attribute to you what you deserve. It is so much easier to be confident without a past looming over one’s shoulders and it is very difficult to believe in oneself after a series of bad experiences in life. If a person undergoes such emotional difficulties then very likely no amount of expenditure on the wedding can remove the issues that may surface again after the music and lights go off and when the couple begin married life after the wedding. The value of a clean slate and a new beginning is priceless.
There is a precious verse from the Bible found in 2 Corinthians which I want to share to encourage you if you can identify with some of the struggles I am talking about. This verse tells us the promise of a clean slate which we have and will experience when we know how much value we have in the eyes of a Creator God. For many people, there is no rest for the human soul till we know that we have been forgiven of our past. Sometimes it is easier for others to forgive us than for us to forgive ourselves. However, when Jesus Christ sacrificed His life, God forgave us of all our mistakes in Jesus. The verse from 2 Corinthians 5:17 states this: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
If there is a price tag on me I know what it says and unlike the shop lady at the beginning of the story, I do not have difficulty ascertaining my value. I can see that the price is written in red. My price is my redeemer’s blood shed for me and that is how much I am worth to Him. Recently, my husband was reminded that in a world of commerce where profits and the bottom line are all that matter, we might compromise ourselves and lose our dignity at our workplace if we are not careful. Have we allowed the people for whom we work to disrespect the needs of our families because we are so afraid to lose our jobs? Or have we lost our sense of justice and integrity because we have allowed these people to play gods and think that they can run our lives any which way they want? When we realise that God Himself died for us, we will understand that our happiness must mean a world to Him and we will be really thankful.
I know not many religious and self righteous people will agree with me but I much rather stick with what the Bible says about God who is super-abounding in His grace; indeed where our falling short abounds, His grace much more abounds. It touches my heart to know that the first recorded miracle of Jesus in the Bible is at a wedding feast. The supply of wine at the wedding feast was running low but the couple was blessed because Jesus turned the water into wine. I wonder how the couple would have reacted had they known God was looking out for them. There is so much grace in God to perform miracles of provision, healing and family blessings for you. These blessings are yours to enjoy today in Christ Jesus.
In Jesus there is no condemnation but not many religious pastors care to discuss this blessing because they do not understand the power that comes with no condemnation before God. In Christianity, you can have the joys of a clean slate knowing that you do not need to carry the burdens of your mistakes forever, as well as the true strength to overcome any destructive habit which you may never find anywhere else. To experience a happy marriage and even a beautiful wedding, it helps a lot to know that the price of no condemnation is high and Jesus paid dearly for it.
In the same light which you appreciate how precious you are, you will also appreciate how precious your spouse is and this is true independent of how much he or she means to you. I honestly think that the best way to plan a wedding is to be thankful and then let everything you decide to do reflect that. Often, we think that if we value our loved ones then our purchasing decisions should reflect accordingly. Yet, the truth is no amount of money can buy the happiness you already have between yourselves because you are thankful to have one another. Just as the church of Christ is His bride purchased by His blood, you too are blessed being thankful for the gift of new beginnings and the promise of a blessed union in Jesus.
PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
Reader Count & Comments
Date
Very good reading. I was told by a former employer once that my job should take precedence over anything else. My reply to this was that God takes first place in my life, my family takes second, and it was because of my family that I even needed the job. We are worth more to God than the world wants us to know. Thank you for this article. Thomas
The opinions expressed by authors do not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com. This is especially true with articles that
deal with personal healthcare and prophecy. We encourage the reader to make their own decision in consultation with God, His Word, and others as needed.
This article has been read 964 times < Previous | Next >
Read more articles by Talittha Cornerstone or search for other articles by topic below.
This article has been read 964 times < Previous | Next >
Search for articles on: (e.g. creation; holiness etc.)
Read more by clicking on a link:Free Reprints
Main Site Articles
Most Read Articles
Highly Acclaimed Challenge Articles.
New Release Christian Books for Free for a Simple Review.
NEW - Surprise Me With an Article - Click here for a random URL
God is Not Against You - He Came on an All Out Rescue Mission to Save You
...in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them... 2 Cor 5:19
Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Acts 13:38
LEARN & TRUST JESUS HERE
FaithWriters offers Christian reading material for Christian readers. We offer Christian articles, Christian fiction, Christian non-fiction, Christian Bible studies, Christian poems, Christian articles for sale, free use Christian articles, Christian living articles, New Covenant Christian Bible Studies, Christian magazine articles and new Christian articles. We write for Jesus about God, the Bible, salvation, prayer and the word of God.