15 Drink water from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well.
16 Should your springs be scattered abroad,
streams of water in the streets?
17 Let them be for yourself alone,
and not for strangers with you.
18 Let your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
19 a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.
20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?

What a beautiful picture of the marriage relationship.  But it isn’t without its dangers.  This father knows the temptation lurking on every corner, attempting to lure his son into the path of adultery.  So he paints a clear picture of how beautiful it is to drink water from your own well and not to pour out your fountain in the streets.  He commands his son to be intoxicated always with his wife’s love.

How is this kind of marriage made? 

Every bride and groom who walks the aisle to marital commitment desires a strong marriage.  They desire to please one another, but what happens?  How is one lured to commit adultery when the promise of love and commitment is so attractive, so strong?

It happens one wrong decision at a time.  There is something to consider before the decisions are made which will keep a man or woman from making these sinful choices; it’s found in verse 21.

21 For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord,
and he ponders all his paths.

Our vows alone are not enough to keep us faithful to one another.  Our love alone is not enough to keep us faithful.  Faithfulness to our spouse flows from the faithfulness of God.  As we ponder the fact that He is watching us and ponders our paths, a healthy fear of God takes root in our heart.  It is from this branch that faithfulness grows – not love for our spouse solely, but this love joined with love for God.

So do you want to stay faithful in your marriage? 

Then, seek God!  Commit your ways to Him, and He will help when the temptations come – and come they will.  We live in a time where immorality and immodesty are everywhere.  We must depend on God to help us say no to all temptation, which includes adultery.

By God’s grace we have been faithful to each other our entire marriage, but even if we hadn’t been, there would still be hope.  We have seen it demonstrated in the lives of others.  God takes what is broken in our lives and in our marriages and restores them for His glory.  There is no sin with which the grace of God won’t reach as one humbly repents and seeks forgiveness.  Rebuilding the broken road of trust takes time, but it is possible.

Our blog is here to help marriages – all marriages build on the good of their relationship – to be intoxicated with your own love – to be filled with delight by the breasts of your own wife.  It takes commitment to romance, commitment to honesty, commitment to trust, but most importantly it takes our commitment to trust in God!

He is with us in every crucial decision we make – He is always listening to us, but the question is are we always listening to Him?  Let’s open our ears and hearts to what He is saying for us to do today.  And then, let’s commit to do it.  This is the path that God will bless.  And this is the path weaving it’s way all through our Vineyard.

Photo of Piazzo Vineyards, Italy