My wife has a passion for cooking and she is very good at it. There are days I come home and I find all sorts of things on the kitchen counter. Flour, sugar, margarine eggs baking powder…..
Now all this things would not be that appetizing if they were served on a nice plate and you were told to dig in. On the other hand, when all this ingredients are mixed together in the right order and in the right proportions, then something good begins to happen but this is not enough. Can you imagine someone presenting you with such a paste for you to eat? It would not be that tasty either.
When this mixture is placed under heat, something amazing happens because then you have a lovely cake.
From there on, you can decorate the cake in any manner that you like depending on your preference.
Without the basic ingredients it matters not how you decorate the cake, it will not taste good.
Mark 10:6-9
6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8 and the two will become one flesh. ‘So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
To become one in marriage just like the cake does, you need some basic ingredients. These include God, trust, love, forgiveness, hope, faith, respect, faithfulness among others. Without these, it matters not how much icing and decoration you place on the marriage, the base will not hold it together.
Many times we neglect the basic ingredients and we chase after the icing and the decorations. We think more money will make our marriage better, or maybe a bigger house or maybe children. Nothing wrong with all these, but do you have all the basic ingredients in the right proportions?
Ecclesiastes 4:12 b
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
God is the third strand that holds a marriage together but sadly many couples lock God out of their marriages and expect things to work out. God is the designer and originator of marriage and having Him as the focus in your marriage is a sure guarantee for success because all the other necessary ingredients stem from Him.
Just like with the cake in the oven, every relationship will go through the fire. The fire can either be to your advantage or you can allow it to destroy what you have. The fires that you go through actually bring out the best in you but it may not seem that way when you are going through them.
Is your marriage lacking in some ingredients? Invite God into it, let Him take center stage and as you both focus on pleasing Him, then He will bring in all the other needed ingredients.