By the Rev. Leroy Cole

My wife and I reached a milestone in our lives this past week, on July 13; we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary. I still remember that day.

As the hour for the wedding to begin approached. I was so excited that in just a little while I would be married. I remember standing and waiting for my bride, who had just turned 18, six weeks prior, to come through the door on her father’s arm. I remember repeating our vows to each other. In my mind I was pronunciating each word because I was making a lifetime commitment to my bride. I don’t know if my wife knew what she was committing to. I was already called into the ministry. It would be a few years before we would leave our hometown and move to New Orleans to prepare for full time ministry. Then three years later ,move to Thomaston to our first pastorate. Then finally here in Andalusia, where we have been for 22 years.

Since then I have officiated hundreds of marriages. I tried to give wise counsel to couples who asked me to officiate their wedding. I would tell couples that you cannot fall in love. You grow in love and you are to continue to grow in love until the day you depart in death. I would tell couples to get their 3 Ms in order. The first M is your master.

God desires to have a personal relationship with everyone. God has provided the way for you and me to have this relationship. Our sin has separated us from God. We must be reconciled to him. God provided Jesus as the savior to redeem and restore us. God requires for the redeemed to make him Lord in our lives. Therefore he becomes our master.

The second M is mission. This is your career choice. What work field do you to plan to pursue. This choice can be defined and altered as time goes on but there needs to be a sense of direction of your mission.

The third M is your mate. As your look for this person, you need to continue with caution. You must consider your choice carefully. Your decision must be in accordance to biblical standards. I believe it is important to get your three M’s in order, your Master, your Mission, and your Mate.

Since I have been a minister longer than I have been married, I believe in the biblical standard of marriage. The bible is full a marriages, some good and some very bad. Some made terrible choices and there are some strong teachings on marriage. Let’s begin in Genesis. I believe in the creation. I cannot explain nor fully understand it but I believe it. On the sixth day God created animal mammal life. After creating all kinds of mammal life, then God said make man in our likeness. God caused everything that breathed oxygen to pass before Adam and he named them all. But there was not any suitable to be a help mate to Adam. God caused a sleep to come over Adam and he took on of Adams’ ribs and created woman. When Adam saw the woman God had created for him he said, “This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall be one flesh. God created a garden that sustained them and they were to be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth, subdue the earth and have dominion over all that God had created.

In this one passage we have the God’s plan for a man and a woman. This is God’s plan for a biblical marriage. One man and one woman united together for life. We all know that Adam and Eve were rebellious to God and were judged and punished. The sin was rebellion and would now be passed to all humanity. That which God had generated had become degenerate but God provides a way for all to become regenerated. However, God leaves the choice to the individual. “For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life.

In the course of human events in history many have ignored the principles, precepts and statues that God has instructed and they have suffered the consequences of their decisions. There comes a time when we must make a choice to follow the principles of God rather than the laws of mankind. We may be forced to accept a decision but we can stand opposed to it. Believers need to stand firm on teachings of the scriptures and proclaim their allegiance to God.

A happy marriage is a holy marriage.