Together, We are One

On December 30, 1995,
Cleyo and I made a covenant before God, and two became One (see Gen.2:21-24).
It is God who in each marriage ordains and performs a uniting called One flesh, it is not in man's power to destroy. Staying married is about keeping covenant. "Till death do us part", or "As long as we both shall live" is a sacred covenant promise - the same kind Jesus made with His bride when He died for her (JP). Marriage is a model of Christ and the church (see Ephesians 5:21-33).
Here are some links, that I thought were good~
Staying married is not about staying in love ,
God's showcase of covenant-keeping Grace ,
Forgiving and Forbearing,

Pursuing conformity to Christ in the covenant.

When we got married in 1995, we had NO IDEA what the purpose of marriage was, and we had no knowledge of how sacred God holds marriage. Cleyo and I had dated since we were 16 years old, we had Sheldon when we were 19 years old, and when he was 3 months old, we got married. Let me just say that I had no idea what I was getting myself into, LOL! We loved each other, but it was naive and immature. Our views on marriage were very worldly. Cleyo has recently admitted that in the beginning of our marriage, he had questioned whether or not he wanted to be stuck with me the rest of his life, which explains his song for our marriage, "Happy to be stuck with you", and I went into our marriage with divorce already on my mind, that if it didn't work out, "oh well, everyone else gets divorced." At least Cleyo entered the marriage as forever, it has only been in the past 2-3 years that God has given me a different view of divorce. Honestly, I am not even sure how the wedding date happened. I had a very strong view against marriage growing up. I saw a lot of marriages fail, a lot of men abuse my mother, so WHY ? in the world would I want to get married, if it was just going to fail, and how could I ever trust a man to truly love me and to treat me good. And let me not forget that Cleyo never proposed, so how did I say yes to this? I remember refusing to get married just because I was with child. Sheldon was born in October, then the next thing I remember is that Cleyo was wanting to set a date before the end of the year for "tax" purposes, so on the last Saturday of 1995, we were married. Romantic, huh? Try not to be too jealous girls! Still to this day, I am not sure how it happened, and my only answer is that God is Sovereign!
Our marriage has failed to be what God had intended it to be, with many mistakes and hardships, because we did not start this marriage with the knowledge and purpose of God's design for it.

SOOOOOO, I am overjoyed to announce that on January 1, 2010, the beginning of our fifteenth year of marriage, we are re-committing our marriage vows to the Lord. The purpose of this is an outward confession, with friends and family as witnesses, that we are surrendering our ways, and our marriage to the Lord. I view this as very similar to a baptism, just as a baptism does not give you Salvation, it is an outward confession of your desire to follow Christ. The re-committing of our marriage does not unite us, we entered into this covenant on December 30, 1995.
Two weeks before I turned 18, I prayed and received Christ as my Savior, within a few weeks, I was baptised, because the church that I was at, told me that was what I needed to do, but looking back, I really did not understand what it was that I was doing. About three years later, I got baptised again, because I finally understood that it was about me confessing openly to others my desire to follow Christ, and ask for their accountability. As with the re-committing of our vows, we are wanting to openly confess that we understand God's purpose for our marriage, and we are committing to live out our marriage, in service to one another, forgiveness to one another, and Christ-like love to one another.

Cleyo is not the same man that I married, and I hope that he can say the same about me. God has changed both of us in many ways. God has blessed us in many ways. God has given us wisdom through His word. We will never be the same. Even though there have been hard and painful times, I would choose to marry Cleyo all over again. The deepness of my love for him, is beyond words. There is no doubt, we are One.