Shine

I just finished watching Jessa Duggar's (now Seewald) wedding! It was beautiful and special! What I loved most about Ben and Jessa's wedding was that God was honored and that their faith and relationship with God, as individuals and as a couple, was front and center. As the divorce rate increases and families break apart, this couple was covered in prayer before, during and after their special day. I am sure they will be covered in prayer the rest of their lives. The advice given to them by family members centered on praying together each day, forgiving one another daily, sacrificing for one another and being selfless. I believe these are the things that keep marriages together under the toughest trials and circumstances.

God can take what is broken or has broken and mend it back together. It requires humbling ourselves and admitting our part in what went wrong and asking for forgiveness. I believe this is true in all relationships not just a marriage relationship. It was the example that Christ gave us on the cross. He humbled Himself by coming down from His heavenly throne to become a man. An innocent and pure man without sin. He became sin and laid down, sacrificed His life, for us. He took on God's wrath and died in the most violent and horrible way-crucifixion. He was selfless. He paid a debt we could not pay-in order that we may have life everlasting! 

Throughout Jesus' life on this earth, the gospels show a man of prayer who would find time alone to be with God no matter how early He had to rise in the morning or how late in the evening after the crowds finally departed. He sought God-His Father. He had a relationship with God that required quality time. He spent quality time with His disciples as well-teaching them the way in which they should go and what they would be called to do and go through after He had died. 

That is what I see being lived out through the Duggars and their relationships. They pray, they spend quality time with God and with each other. They mentor, they teach, they forgive and they sacrifice. It is a blessing and encouragement to have these Godly examples and role models on television today.