Twenty-one Years

Today my wife and I celebrate our survival of twenty-one years together as husband and wife.

Yesterday she was astonished to realize that she had forgotten our wedding anniversary until yesterday.  She shared this with me and I was startled to realize that while I thought of it all last month and even most of last week, that it had disappeared from my thoughts that day as well.

Ouch!  What a powerful reminder of our dysfunctional ways on account of our frailty as sinful humans!

On the other hand, it also serves as a powerful reminder of who has joined us as one and who it is that preserves us as one.

How I wish that I lived in full acknowledgment of the man and husband that the Lord has made me to be by His gracious decree.  My life surely does not serve as a witness to His gracious gifts and promises.  My faithfulness to my wife is sadly lacking.  Thankfully, it is not my faithfulness that matters.  Thankfully, she knows this, too.

As a concluding portion of our wedding worship service, I shared this promise and confession:

My dear bride, Stephanie,

     Today I have made to you a very bold promise, to be to you a true and faithful husband.  This promise I do not make in my own name, for I know that on the basis of my own name I am but a bum.  But I also bear another Name, the Name of my Lord Christ, and in His Name I am a prince.  And so, in the Name of my Lord Christ I will be to you your prince.

I have been true to my word.  By my own name and efforts I have been a bum.  I cannot even number the ways in which I have failed my bride as her husband.  I certainly have not been faithful in forsaking all others besides the Lord.  How many times have I put myself and my desires and my emotions above her?  How many times have I selfishly enumerated her shortcomings?  How many times have I counted as shortcomings her personal needs of body, heart, mind, and spirit?

Thanks be to God that she remembers the latter part of my promise.  Thanks be to God that she counts me as a good and loving and faithful husband not because of what I say and do, but because of the Lord’s gracious decree.

And this is what she continually reminds me as what she counts as the reason for me being a blessing in her life.  She reminds me that as her husband and also as her pastor I direct her the Lord and his grace, mercy, and peace.  She does count me as a prince for His sake.

What a wonderfully refreshing reminder this serves us regarding Christ and His Church.  What we observe Him doing for us is what He does for His beloved bride.  In fact, what He does for us flows directly from what He does for His dear bride.  This is what St. Paul blessedly proclaims in Ephesians 5:21-33.

The Lord’s goodness is displayed in everything, and especially in the one-flesh union of His Church that is reflected in our one-flesh union that we celebrate this day.  Truly it is a happy and blessed anniversary!

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Pervasive and Pernicious Homophobia

Signs such as this one illustrate boldly the effects and affects of homophobia upon society.  The original of this photo is at D'Avid RC's Photos.

This photo shows the extreme cleverness and deceptive power of the methods used in this society changing agenda.  The fact that this is a very deliberately orchestrated agenda is so in-your-face that most people do not even recognize it as an agenda.  Rather, most people have come already to accept it as the norm rather than an overthrow of the norm.

The very term of homophobia has been presented in a deceptive manner.  A term describing a natural and normal reaction to a dangerous and destructive behavioral pattern and choice has been repeatedly and endlessly presented as something to be abhorred and avoided.  The natural reaction that people have to something that they instinctively perceive as dangerous and aberrant from the natural order of life has been presented as an irrational and unhealthy reaction.

Yet the facts of life remain unchanged.  The facts of nature stand against all of the attempts to deny them.

The fact is that humanity has a natural awareness of the dangers of the totally unnatural perversions of the natural order.  Choosing to act in opposition to the natural order does present both obvious and subtle dangers.  And to have a phobia or fear of things that cause danger is not only normal and natural, but also healthy and proper.

Imagine the reaction that would be observed from people if a father were known to teach his children that they need not to be afraid of sticking their hands under a running lawn mower.  Imagine the public outcry that would result if a kindergarten teacher were known to teach the children that they should not be wary of the advancement of strangers.  Yet these same teachers are now required to use curricula that teach the children to accept diversity and not to fear aberrant lifestyle choices, choices that do have undeniable dangers associated with them.

It has and continues to be frequently presented that the homosexual agenda merely seeks the safety of homosexuals to enact their life choices privately without fear of consequences from so-called homophobes.  But this is a blatant lie.  While some homosexuals merely desire not to be judged and not to be attacked and simply desire to be left alone, this is not the agenda presented publicly.  The homosexual agenda is to force the rest of society to change so as to accept this aberration as normal and to allow it to be promoted as an alternative to the natural order of life.  This agenda has as its objective the use of legislation to force people to accept the sexual deviations as normal and to allow these deviations to be presented to children as alternatives to what both nature and their parents teach them.

Within this agenda is included the doctrine that homosexuality is not a choice but how those with these unnatural urges are born.  Some actually go as far as to call it a genetically inherited trait.  And while there are some children who are born with both forms of genitalia, it is absurd to claim that this is normal or even inherited.  This is a genetic aberration.

It also is true that some children are born with personalities that demonstrate more or less femininity or masculinity.  This is indeed normal, but not truly genetic.  It may be inherited, but at a level far more powerful than the genes.  Regardless, this is not the same as being born a homosexual.  Rather, this is simply the diverse range of emotional composition of people’s personalities.

There is no doubt that females are born with emotions and patterns of thinking that are more feminine and males with more masculine.  But within both sexes there is a naturally occurring wide range of expression of these traits.  Again, this does not make a person more or less of a homosexual.

However, people do become confused regarding their own understanding of their own emotions.  Most especially people can become confused regarding the difference between philos and eros, that is, the difference between affection and sexual attraction.  At the emotional level these are very closely related, so closely that they are often thought to be the same.  But they are different.  Actually, they are very different, yet also similar.

Most people, without being taught the difference, think that peanuts are nuts.  But peanuts are legumes, which have many similarities with nuts, but also are truly very different.

Philos and eros both are emotions, and very powerful emotions.  Both include a powerful sense of being attracted to another person.  But the two are very different, even though they are often confused as being the same.  For example, it is perfectly natural for two men to experience philos for one another.  This is not a sexual attraction, even though this philos may move them to embrace one another intimately, even with a kiss.  This is not sexual.  However, it can easily be mistaken as a sexual emotion.  Likewise, it is perfectly natural for a man and a woman to experience eros for one another, being attracted to one another sexually.  This leads to reproduction of the human race.  Philos and eros do naturally occur together in such a relationship.  They are naturally paired in the sexual relationship of husband and wife.  These two emotions lead to the union of husband and wife and the formation of a stable family.  This is the natural order.  This is called marriage.

Such a union or marriage cannot occur between two people of the same sex.  Yet the homosexual agenda is to force the rest of society to deny this fact.  The homosexual agenda seeks to use the law to force the rest of society to accept what is clearly unnatural and even impossible.

The human anatomy and physiology teach the facts of life.  Marriage of two human beings of the same sex is simply impossible.  It cannot occur.  It is unnatural to try to make it so.  No matter how many times two women pretend to have sexual relations with one another, or two men with each other, this is not true sexual union.  Living together in this pretense does not constitute marriage.  It is like the old saying of trying to make a square peg fit a round hole.  The two can be forced together, but not in a true fit according their actual design.  Forcing such a union does severe injury to both and changes both into something other than what they truly are.

Yet the homosexual agenda is to force this activity upon the rest of society.  The homosexual agenda demands that the rest of society accept this unnatural and brutal change of sexuality and of society itself.

This agenda also seeks to mute the truth regarding the dangers of this aberrant sexual activity.  This agenda seeks to force society to ignore the truth of the dangers created by this   But the dangers are real.  Ignoring them does not make them less dangerous, but more dangerous.

It is difficult if not impossible to list all of the dangers, let alone to prioritize them according to levels of danger.  However, in this discussion, health dangers will be mentioned first.

The most obvious of the health dangers are the STDs or the Sexually Transmitted Diseases.  These are not the only health dangers, but certainly seem to be the most obvious.  The dangers of STDs accompany any sexual promiscuity, but are especially identified with same sex sexual activity.  For this reason both the United Blood Services and the American Red Cross list criteria for eligibility to donate blood.  As is listed especially on the American Red Cross web site, the policy for rejecting donations from homosexuals is an FDA policy.  Here is a snapshot of that information:

As is mentioned, the homosexual agenda pursues the elimination of such safeguards and there are people who speak out as if this were in some way unfair.  Yet it seems unlikely that these same people when undergoing surgery or other cause for blood transfusion would demand of their doctor that blood from a homosexual be administered.  It is always easy to speak of these things in the abstract, but when the danger hits home, the person’s perspective often returns to the norm.

There are other health and physical dangers connected with homosexual activity, but for now, the one of the dangers to society will be presented.  Healthy societies have always had a clear definition for family.  This is both natural and necessary for a society to function with good order and minimal obstructions.  While polygamy has been practiced throughout history, one man and one woman nevertheless has prevailed.  The difficulties of multiple spouses in a family have always instructed people that one man and one woman is both the most practical and functional.  From the maternal side of this, children always gravitate to acknowledge only one mother.  Where more than one mother is the practice, rivalry always develops both between the wives as well as between the various children.

But homosexuality never produces family.  Never.  In order for homosexuals to obtain children, they must obtain them from a breakdown in the societal norm of healthy man/woman-husband/wife family structure.  Either through the breakdown by adultry/fornication, or by divorce, or by death of parents, or by abandonment by parents, the normal societal family and reproduction functions must be broken in order for homosexuals to obtain children.  This is not normal.  This is not healthy.

Moreover, children cannot learn from two of the same sex the normal and natural order of familial structure and interaction.  They cannot learn the proper distinction of philos and eros from such an arrangement.  Therefore they are cheated of this normal childhood development.  Society is damaged as these children grow and struggle to know their proper place in society.  Ultimately the society breaks down from this unnatural ignorance of the natural order.

Much more can be said in these matters, but now the hypocrisy displayed in the so-called church sign seems to be appropriate.  Here again is the photo:

First of all, notice the hypocrisy of this church judging others for what they themselves have and do promote, that is, the acceptance of divorce and remarriage.  This church has long been known to undermine the concept of the sanctity of marriage, not only regarding the homosexual issue, but regarding promiscuity and divorce as well.  So for this church to point fingers at those they have excused for marrying, divorcing, and remarrying in an endless cycle is the highest hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy amongst those professing to be godly certainly is not a new occurrence.  It can be traced to the very first couple.  It manifested itself horrifically in the life of their first son.  It was manifested amongst the people of Israel.  Jesus denounced it during His ministry amongst the Jews.  His apostles denounced it in their ministries.  The only man never to demonstrate hypocrisy is Jesus.  All the rest of us must confess our own hypocrisy and seek to hear God’s absolution.  Only with this honest self-evaluation can we move forward with godly and healthy lives.  Only abiding in the grace of the Lord can we judge ourselves rightly and then interact in holy, godly, and healthy ways with our fellow man.

It is not the Christian’s place to make oneself judge over others.  It is, however, the Christian’s place to speak the truth in love.  This does include speaking the judgement that has already been declared by the Judge of all, speaking this judgment with the holy desire that honest confession of people’s sinfulness and need of God’s forgiveness and restoration result.  Ignoring the truth about people’s sinfulness is not love.  It is not even kind.  Moreover, such ignorance is in itself judgment of the worst kind.  For this deliberate ignorance of the needs of others is a judgment by which people are judged to be unworthy of such caring and love and effort.

Sadly, most Christians falsely imagine that they have been called by God to legislate morality and godliness.  But the way to which the Lord calls His saints is the way of Agape.  It is the way of His love in action.  His way is the way of speaking the truth in love so that people hear the truth and are confronted with it for their well-being.  His way is to call people to acknowledge His holiness and to be moved to desire for Him to work this in them through the means of grace that He has already ordained to be administered in His Church on earth.

The sanctity of marriage cannot be enacted by law.  Certain protections for family and marriage can be enacted by law, so as to protect married couples and their families from certain intrusions and abuses by both government and society, but the sanctity of marriage cannot be established nor enforced by law.

On this point, the hypocritical statement in the photo of the church sign does make a true inference.  For it is true that one hypocrite cannot enforce the sanctity of anything upon another hypocrite.  Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit, who works through the means of grace to convert hypocrites into true believers, who thereby follow His urging to live in accord with the will of God that has been taught to them in their regenerated hearts and souls and minds.

Thus, while the statement in the sign has the appearance of hypocritical motivation, it does nevertheless point to the truth that each person should be first concerned with one’s own sanctification.  If such a person gives the due attention to this concern, very little time or energy will remain for pretending to be God and judging others.  Rather, such people will embrace one another within the Holy Communion ordained by the Lord, calling to one another saying, “Let us return again to the Lord to partake of His grace through His ordained means that we may indeed enjoy His mercy, love, and holiness together.”

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Terrible Grief

Grief can be truly terrible, even terrifying.

The Newtown tragedy continues to be prevalent in the news and in the minds of all who hear it.

Yesterday as I was taking care of things that needed to be done, I realized that I am affected even more powerfully than I realized by this event, or rather, by the reminder of how vulnerable I am.

My own death is not very frightening to me contrasted to the devastation that I would face upon the loss of my wife.  If someone broke into the government school where she works and ripped her out of my life through a murderous and senseless act, I would have nothing left in this world.  I would be bereft of the only worldly possession of real value to me, save one.

There is one worldly possession that is even greater for me than my wife.  It is the one possession that would preserve my sanity and hope.  It is my knowledge of God’s love to me that is poured out freely through His means of grace.

My wife and I have talked many times about this.  We both share the great concern that if anything happened to the other, we would be left with no one locally with whom we could gather to receive the unadulterated Sacrament of forgiveness and life.  Whichever of us survived the other would have to move, or settle for periodic travel to our friends who likewise gather to the pure Word and Sacrament.

This very likely sounds foreign to most who read this.  We live in a city with nine LC-MS and one WELS congregations, and yet we have no place where we can safely worship.  This is because we believe that to join with congregations who pledge themselves to compromised worship and practice and definition of communion/fellowship is to have our souls raped and molested.  We believe that we need to receive only the absolutely pure means of grace.  Otherwise we will be filled with the world’s pollution that corrupts and kills.

Thus our marriage and union is absolutely vital to us.  We truly need each other and we do not know how to live without each other.

Again, I read yet another account of the Newtown tragedy: Investigators visit Conn. gun shops and ranges as townspeople seek comfort in faith.  This account made clear a fact that I suspected to be the case. Adam Lanza was the child of a broken marriage.  He was a young man bearing the scars of his parents’ divorce.

We have degenerated into a society where this is counted as the norm.  Great efforts have been exerted to reeducate and retrain the people to consider divorce as an acceptable and even a normal occurrence.  Today one is more likely to encounter children who have experienced the divorce of their parents, than children whose parents remained steadfastly together for as long as they both should live.

Both I and my wife have been blessed to know marriage as a lifetime contract.  Our parents remained together until our fathers died.  Both of us knew that our parents would be home for us.  They were our refuge in the Lord.  We knew that when Daddy left the house that he would gladly and lovingly return home again.  We knew that Mommy would be there for us, too.  No matter how badly an argument raged, we knew that forgiveness and reconciliation would prevail in the end.  This we knew.  This we believed.  This was factual.  The foundation stone of our security, the marriage of our parents that the Lord had instituted and blessed, would stand for us.  We knew the meaning of home.  This is an extension of knowing the everlasting home that God has for us.

But we both have friends who were not so blessed.  We even have family members who have abandoned this so that they divorced.  They broke their contract with each other.  They broke the confidence of their children. And we have seen the effects and affects upon all who have suffered this.

Our society tries to minimize this.  But we continue to see the effects.  We see the confusion of identity.  We see the increase of instability.  We hear the cries of loneliness.  We observe the suicides.  We mourn the many aborted children.  We tremble at the random acts of violence.

Is there any advantage to closing our eyes to what we see and our ears to what we hear?  Is there any real benefit to giving our blessing to the destruction caused by divorce?

How many churches and pastors today really count divorce for what it is?  How many actually still preach divorce as sin from which people need to be saved?  How many still count this as a cause for repentance?  How many still urge forgiveness as the only answer?

How many children of divorces are told that they need to accept this horrible molestation and rape as OK and to get over it?  How can such children be confident of anything when this is what they are told?  How can they know what to trust as true and reliable?  How are they to know love as more than a fickle emotion, as a fact that does not fail?

This is why we dare not allow the means of grace also to be compromised.  This is why we dare not call anything but the gathering to the pure means of grace as God’s Church on earth, His holy family.  For if we allow the worship, the communion, the means of our certainty to be compromised, we have nothing in which to trust.

For those whose parents turn to divorce for their answer to their failures and problems, God’s Church remains true.  Where those called together by the Holy Spirit continue in the purity of the Word and Sacraments, there they may rest securely without doubt or fear.  There God is truly present for them.  There the marriage of God with His bride is manifest for all to observe.  His children rejoice in their security.  This is the way when the Gospel is preached purely and the Sacraments are administered as they have been ordained.  This is the way when the worship reflects this in its entirety.

Is this not comforting news?  God does not believe in divorce, except with regard to our sin.  He says that He divorces us from our sin so that we may be united with Him in His Church.  He has given us Baptism as the means by which we are regenerated or reborn into His family.  He has given His Holy Supper to nourish us and keep us alive in His family through the one true faith. All of this is His gift, His gracious doing for us, as our loving Father.  Through this He causes us to know ourselves as He knows us, as His beloved children.  He never forsakes His children.  He never leaves them to find their own way.  For this reason He demands that His pastors never compromise the Word and the life of the holy family, which life we know as worship and communion.

All other families can be broken.  But God’s family is forever.  People do fall away and forget God’s everlasting promises and love, but God does not forget.  People do look elsewhere and become lost, but God continues to call each one through the continuing existence and life of His Church on earth.  Each and every living person is free to return, even more than free, but continually called by our Heavenly Father.  His bride, His family, stands ready to receive each one eagerly.  The Lord declares that the heavenly hosts rejoice when even one sinner is caused to repent and to return home.

This blessed Advent season beckons to us all to hear this and to believe it.  The Christmas season teaches us how far the Lord is willing to go to call us back again to His loving care.  The Epiphany season teaches us how far the call of His Gospel reaches.  Each season of the Church year serves us in these ways.

We are not left alone.  We have not been abandoned.  We are not orphans without hope of reconciliation and reunion with our everlasting family.  Our God comes for us.  He calls to us.  He gives Himself for us.  Like with the shepherds out in the fields with their flocks that very special night, God sends His message through angels, the pastors and the saints who abide in Him and His communion, to call us to respond, saying like the shepherds, “Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.”

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12/12/12

     In our household this unique alignment of repeating numbers was especially significant. While the rarity of this occurrence is obvious to all, being the last calendar date with such repeating digits for this millennium, for us it also is our twentieth anniversary of our wedding. Thus it is not only significant as it draws special attention to the twelves of 12/12/12, but it also embodies the twenty for the fulfillment of our twentieth year together as one in the Lord, 12/12/2012.

      We both included this in our little cards to each other, but my wife designed a graphic that captures the essence of the symbolism beautifully.

     In our discussions throughout that evening, in addition to giving thanks to God for His gift of bringing us together to live as husband and wife, and especially His merciful and continual intervention to keep us from destroying this union so that we are brought together again and again in His love through His never-ending forgiveness, we also noted how this special choice of dates is one that we chose according to what He worked for us as we attempted to find a date when all of our family and friends could be with us on the day of our wedding. In this we acknowledged that we had no idea that He was giving to us also this special date on which our twentieth year of marriage would be marked perfectly by the numerical notation of 12-12-2012.

      This stands as a reminder of how the Lord always works on our behalf even without our awareness, acknowledgment, or even asking. It is a wonderful blessing that the Lord Jesus has given us a common prayer among us where by His command we do acknowledge all things and receive them with thanks, as we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”

      Luther gives a wonderful explanation to this petition:

Give us this day our daily bread.   What does this mean?—Answer.      God gives daily bread, even without our prayer, to all wicked men; but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to know it, and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.

What is meant by daily bread?—Answer.      Everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as meat, drink, clothing, shoes, house, homestead, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful magistrates, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.

+ + +        If we are willing to see it, the Lord makes His goodness and mercy manifest in everything in our lives, even in something as seemingly tiny as a grouping of repeating numbers. Certainly He does so in our marriages that demonstrate to us His holy union to His bride the Church, and in the manifold blessings poured out to us, the children of that union, through the means of grace administered to us within His everlasting household and especially at His Table. Through this we observe in the clearest way possible how truly good our Father and God is.

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Five Below

It was five degrees below zero this morning when I awakened. That is cold for Wichita. That is cold for a native Floridian! Even though I've lived farther north and have experienced much colder weather, five below is still very cold and harsh.

The coldest weather that I have experienced is forty below. I changed my mother-in-law's thermostat in her car that day. I thought that my hands would freeze solid.

Such weather does make me long for the Day of the Lord's coming to arrive. Even though I know that He is being patient for the sake of all who will be regenerated to believe the Gospel, still I become somewhat impatient on account of the pains of the cursed ground.

Growing up in Orlando, I was entirely unable to conceive of the day when I would speak of forty degrees as being warm. Before being driven out of the garden, mankind was free of such troubles. Sin has changed everything. Turmoil and trouble and wars and rumors of wars and riots and inflation and corrupt government leaders . . .

Yes, the Second Advent of the Lord will be a good day. Those who reject the Gospel and refuse to be ruled by the peace of God will be gathered up and sent to the place that has been reserved for all who prefer the deceptive leadership of the devil so that those who have been converted to trust and rely upon God and His grace will forevermore be free of all of these troubles.

Such freedom is beyond imagination except for the promises of God in His Holy Scriptures. No garbage about 70 virgins, as the Lord Himself declares that marriage and giving in marriage will no longer be the way for men and women. Our sexual desires will have served their double purpose of procreation and leading us to realize the greater marriage of God with mankind in Christ. Such anguish as the burning passions of sexual lust will no longer burden us. Neither will the freezing temperatures that often cause frostbite in relationships. No jabbing and piercing comments, no angry lashings out at one another, no selfish expectations and impositions upon one another, none of these things shall press upon us anymore.

Having called my next-door neighbor to be sure that he is OK, an elderly fellow of 90 years, I was informed that the weather channel report for the low last night was sixteen below, even colder than I realized. In addition to looking forward to the parousia, such announcements also make me very thankful for God’s gifts of house and home, shelter and clothing, furnaces and insulation. As the old gray cat walked carefully along the sidewalks that I shoveled yesterday and last night, I also was very thankful for the warm shelter of my house, as well as the warmth and comfort of all of God’s promises in Christ.

Living together: What various denominations say

My wife cut out this article and drew my attention to it: Living together: What various denominations say.

One Baptist pastor says:

"We believe that if people are living together, they should be married," Brooks said. "But we welcome everyone. We don't judge them (those who are not married) or make them feel bad. We simply teach the Bible and what we believe to be true.

Another pastor says:

"Some pastors may avoid this topic, but not me," Evans said. "You can't talk candidly about this if you are afraid. Some pastors are afraid that by telling people their position, the people will start looking at them.

"But people have to know that nothing can separate you from the love of God, and God can change you and fix whatever it is."

Evans said fornication is a sin, and, "We hate the sin, not the sinner. We should not condone their lifestyle, but not condemn the people."

People do like to quote Romans 8:39 divorced of its context.

I especially laugh/cry whenever I hear: “we hate the sin, not the sinner.” This is usually stated as what people impose upon God as saying. I guess sins exist apart from those who do them and lifestyles just sneak up on people and drag them into them. People apparently do not actually choose their sinful lifestyles. People who have sex apart from marriage must be unaware of what they are doing.

I wonder, do these non-judgmental pastors hold the same tolerant views concerning domestic violence? How about rape? How about failure to pay alimony or child support?

Marriage and the Gospel

In Ephesians 5 the Apostle Paul speaks of marriage as the mystery of Christ and His Church. Then he says that husbands and wives each should live in this holy mystery concerning each other.

In Genesis we encounter the first two marriages, Christ and His Church, and then Adam and Ishshah. In the first marriage Christ gives Himself to and for His bride. He forms her from the earth and brings her into existence to live in His love. She turns from Him, and He calls her back and speaks words of grace to her.

In Genesis 3:20 Adam, having heard the word of promise that Christ spoke concerning His bride, that the Seed would be born to conquer Satan, the head of the serpent, having observed Christ’s love for His Church Adam then turns to the one he had named Ishshah, which means of man, and gives her the new name of Heva, Eve, which means Life.

How interesting! When confronted with the Law the man blamed his wife. When observing Christ in His dealings with His Church through the Gospel, the man turns and blesses his wife, even giving her the name of blessing. The result was peace for man and wife and they went forth trusting in God’s grace together.

Many books have been written regarding how to have a happy marriage. Yet the Holy Spirit speaks through Moses and St. Paul revealing in a few words the true foundation for a happy and blessed marriage. When the husband honors his God-given role as head of house so as to bless his wife in the name of the Lord and when the wife honors her God-given role as partner with her husband in this blessing of God’s Holy Communion, truly the marriage is blessed.