Committed to a Healthy Family

Genesis 15:18 NIV
On that day the Lord made a COVENANT with Abram and said, “To
your descendants I give this land…”
“The covenant of marriage is the single most important human bond
that holds all of God’s work on the planet together.” — Jack Hayford
How to Be Committed to a Healthy Family:

1. Understand the power of the marriage covenant.
   Covenant: BERIT — vow; binding; unbreakable God-promise
   Malachi 2:13-16 NLT
   …You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, weeping and groaning
   because he pays no attention to your offerings and doesn’t accept
   them with pleasure. You cry out, “Why doesn’t the Lord accept my
   worship?” I’ll tell you why! Because the Lord witnessed the vows you
   and your wife made when you were young. But you have been
   unfaithful to her, though she remained your faithful partner, the wife of
   your marriage vows. Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In
   body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children
   from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your
   youth. “For I hate divorce!” says the Lord, the God of Israel. “To
   divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,” says the Lord of
   Heaven’s Armies. “So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your
   wife.”
   Luke 16:18 NIV
   “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits
   adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits
   adultery.”
   Matthew 19:4-10 NIV
   “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator
   ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will
   leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will
   become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
   Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” “Why
   then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a
   certificate of divorce and send her away?” Jesus replied, “Moses
   permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard.
   But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who
   divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another
   woman commits adultery.” The disciple said to him, “If this is the
   situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.”
   “It is not your worldly love that sustains marriage, but from now on the
   marriage covenant sustains your love.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
2. Understand that we can only give what we’ve received.
   John 15:9 NIV
   “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you…”
3. Understand that this is a marathon and not a sprint.
   Some of us made a marathon commitment, but we’re running a sprint
   marriage.
   2 Timothy 4:7 NLT
   I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have
   remained faithful.