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You have heard the vows before. Maybe you used these or similar vows on your wedding day. To have and to hold from this day forward. For better or for worse. For richer or for poorer. In sickness and in health. As long as we both shall live. These vows, or ones like them, are spoken at virtually every one of the 5,918 weddings that take place each day in the United States. Unfortunately, too many of those who say, “I do,” end up saying, “I don’t.”
Scripture has something to say regarding vows. These vows are said before God and witnesses. Your word is your bond. Here’s what Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes 5:4-6
When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?
Divorce statistics are staggering. By some estimates, fifty percent of marriages end in divorce. One-third of divorces occur within the first five years, with the highest percentage occurring within the first three years! Three years! You don’t even really know each other yet. Many people do not give marriage a chance.
But…God does take vows seriously. He warns us not to make vows we can’t or won’t keep. “Let not your mouth lead you into sin.” And don’t say, “[My vow] was a mistake.” If we are serious enough to make a vow, we need to be serious enough to keep it. You can buy a starter house. But there is no such thing as a starter marriage. Keep your vows.
Father, help us to keep our vows of marriage. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Good devo! My Grandfather a wonderful Christian man, from Italy told my mother when she was young,
“You need to eat a bushel of salt with someone before you know them.”