HAL BRADY: How to stay married

It’s been a long time since I have written on the subject of marriage. As a minister and writer, I have attempted to address the issues of everybody, and not everybody is married. Nor should they be. But marriage is the basis of the family and is of critical importance to the welfare of humankind. Not long ago, after I had performed a wedding ceremony, a young married woman rushed up to me in the hallway and said, “I appreciate your remarks about marriage. But the real question is ‘How do you stay married?’ I hope you will address that subject sometime.”

With those words still ringing in my ears and the knowledge of the wedding ceremony I will be conducting for my grandson and his bride-to-be in two weeks, I decided to tackle the critical subject of “How to Make a Good Marriage Better.” When a couple stands at the altar of a church during a marriage ceremony, they are not just making a deal or entering into a legal contract. Oh, there is some of that included all right. But, in reality, as this couple joins their hands and states their vows, they are entering into a covenant. As Dr. David McKechnie, former pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas, observed, “A covenant means that there is a third party involved, and that third party is the Spirit of God. When you exchange wedding vows… you are doing something divine. You are saying, ‘Thank you God, for this gift and opportunity.’”