National Marriage Celebration Week February 7-14

[Mary Crosby]

        Eternal Father,

        How we love You, give Thee thanks and praise for your goodness and mercy toward us.You are forever our God  

Father, we need Your love and blessings to flow in our marriages and families. Thank You Father for Your amazing grace that affords us the gift of salvation and marriage. Lord, I ask You to teach us how to be more appreciative and grateful for every blessing You give us on a daily basis.

Lord, I pray Your blessing will cover each married couple and those engaged to be married. I also pray for those hopeful to becoming married. I pray they will grow in mutual respect, forgiveness, communication and in their love for one another; that through their faith in You and prayer together they will prepare themselves rightly and chastely for marriage. Thank You for teaching us how to love according to Your word. I Corinthians 13:4-13.

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

I pray every married couple will equip themselves with the word of God and a spirit of submission to one another.. Thank You for your word that helps us to understand more clearly about love as You have defined it and not as the world knows it.

 John 15:9-15:

⁹ As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

¹⁰ If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

¹¹ These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

¹² This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

¹³ Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

¹⁴ Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

¹⁵ Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

This is My commandment: love one another as I have loved you.

We praise You for your unfailing and never dying love for each of us. Teach us Lord to love that very same Way! Let Your compassion fill our hearts as we journey each day. In Jesus' name. Amen!

PrayOn!

Mary J. Crosby