-296 A cord of three strands can't be broken ( Sunday 20th February 2011 )

Photo by Getideaka

"Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." Ecclesiastes 4:12

This verse was spoken by someone who was sharing in Church this morning, in reference to his marriage and ministry, and to be truthful I was only half listening because I was mucking around with the new Bible software on my iPad and was a little distracted. However this verse penetrated my brain for a reason today. 

I was at the local shopping centre after Church partly avoiding going to an empty flat and also getting my 10 000 steps a day up at the same time, when I spied another single acquaintance from Church one of the stores.

We had a coffee ( ok, well I had a coffee ) and I caught up on her latest foray into the dating world ( too soon too fast and the guy seemed to be a SASFAGR in my opinion ). But we had an interesting conversation about falling in love with and marrying a non Christian.

I know all the reasons for and against and the usual arguments and the Biblical standpoints and as my aquaintance pointed out there are no guarantees that even by marrying a Christian man that they will stay a Christian. But.....

I am reminded of that verse; 

"Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." Ecclesiastes 4:12 

I think I have come to the realisation that like it or not I have already made a choice that I do want to marry a Christian man where he can be one strand, I can be one and that God can be the one that binds us together from the outset to make us strong together. I know you can't control whether the other person cuts their strand - if The Non Bachelor and I were married and he chose to walk away from God like he did as we were breaking up, I may have been in a marriage that tested that theory. But I know that I would rather begin a marriage from the beginning with that third cord in our strand not praying that it can be accepted to be added during the marriage. I also can't imagine not being able to share a massive part of my life with my husband and have him understand and make a difference for His kingdom together.

So while the outright acknowledgment of this for me is a bit scary because essentially when thinking from a worldview perspective I'm cutting out a huge number of men here - I know that for me this is right.

I'm not expecting a perfect Christian man after all I'm not perfect, I've walked in small and large deserts over the past 15 years but if he is willing to be in a marriage with me and God, the three of us together then that's what am going to continually pray for until I have that ring on my finger just like that vision  I had or until I hear "Well done, good and faithful servant"  :)

xMiss365