Our blog is called The Romantic Vineyard, so naturally romance is a key focus of ours. But romance can’t take the place of being intentional in growing your marriage for the purpose God designed.

Marriage between and husband and wife was created by God. It was His idea not just for procreation, but to be a visible model of Christ’s love for His bride—the Church.

If we lose sight of the big picture purpose of our relationship we run the risk of making it all about our individual happiness. And whenever we focus on self, nothing godly comes of it.

You see Christ laid down His life so that we could have life abundantly and no longer stand guilty before a Holy God. He denied self because He loved us first. He knew that to restore our relationship with His Father, it would require His complete surrender.

This is amazing news for marriage!

We have a perfect example of how to succeed in our marriage—lay down our life for the good of our spouse.

Of course for this to make a healthy marriage, it requires both partners to prefer the other above themselves.

There are some marriages where this is expected by a controlling husband. This is not the model Jesus, the Groom, set forth for husbands.

There are also some marriages where a proud and selfish wife refuses to appreciate the humility and unselfish acts of her husband, which is how the Church is called to respond to Christ.

The only way for Marriage to mature is for both spouses to pursue godliness together.

Now for romance in a healthy marriage—it is the overflow of worship to God where romance has weight.

It is no longer a night out to dinner or going to the movies together. It can be, but the time we set aside for ourselves is much more. We want to be together. We value any time we have to connect without distractions. We care what our spouse is thinking and make time to listen wholeheartedly.

This is why romance matters; it is a barometer for how the rest of our marriage is doing.

Romance isn’t the answer for how to have a healthy marriage; it’s the results of one.

Thanks for taking the time to visit our vineyard. We are grateful you’re here, and you can sign up so as not to miss a single post.

Photo Cred: Jonathan Borba on Unsplash