"Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed."

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Matthew 19:1-11 -- Thoughts on Marriage and Divorce

I need to pick back up in Matthew and continue what I started earlier this year. Join me in chapter 19 which begins with a discussion of divorce.


 1 When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. 2 Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

 3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”


When reading this yesterday I was wondering what the test here was. I mean, how did they want him to answer?  Was there a trick for him to avoid?  Did he pass their test or get caught with the wrong answer?


   4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”


While rereading these few verses I mused at truly what a beautiful picture this is if you stop and think about it. Especially when you take into account other Biblical passages about how men are supposed to treat their wives like Christ treated the Church (the believers). For instance, Paul says Christ nourished and cherished it and so men ought to love their wives this way. 

When you leave your momma and your daddy to unite with your wife, you and she become ONE - a unity - in God's eyes. How then can you abuse, disrespect, humiliate or neglect part of yourself?  When your tooth is hurting, you do something to help it feel better. You clean and groom your hair, cut your nails, wash your face. You take care of yourself.  Men, if your wife is part of you and, women, your husband is part of you, treat that part of you with honor, love and respect! 

We don't give up a tooth or toe or arm without some pain ..or without a fight! I don't know many people who would cheerfully and willingly give up a leg. Even people with life-threatening injuries grieve the fact they must sacrifice a toe or leg in order to halt a disease that could kill them.  An injured soldier doesn't readily give up a crushed limb. Why then do we often treat our spouses as people we can give up? Why would we fight more to keep a toe or hand than to keep our other half?


Marriage: when 1 + 1 = 1

I think Jesus wants us to consider this. We are ONE in God's eyes. Two halves that make a beautiful whole. Don't give that up!  Fight for your marriage.  Honor, love and serve one another. Consider the other better than you consider yourself. If both men and women seek to do this, I think a lot more marriages would still be intact!

 7 “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
 8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

Only because of the people's hard hearts did Moses allow them to divorce. I've heard Jewish men would sometimes divorce their wives because she burnt dinner, wasn't pleasing to him any more or whatever other reason he could think of. Apparently women back then didn't have anyone much to defend them in this so I am glad Jesus spoke up telling these men "from the beginning" this - divorce for little-to-no-good reason - was not God's plan for marriages.

Remember God is about relationship...and not those fickle, shallow, I'm-only-here-when-things-are-goin'-good kinds. He's there for us in the good and bad and He loves unconditionally and intimately. He has that 'anyway' love as opposed to that 'because' kind.  What do I mean by this?

Conditional love says because you are good-looking, kind and make a lot of money, I will stay with you.

Unconditional love says even though you forgot it was our anniversary, have a nasty temper when things are not going in your favor, and ran up massive debt on the credit card, I love you (anyway.)


 10 The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.”

Were these men conditioned to having an easy 'out' if their women didn't please them?  I'm puzzling over their statement here.  Is the prospect of staying with a spouse for life and actually working on your marriage with honor and love so difficult that they would rather not try?

 11 Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. 12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

It seems some people would rather stay single in order to devote themselves to God's work. This is fine for those to whom this lifestyle has been given by God.  But marriage is honorable as well.

I saw a few headlines just this past week about how the idea of traditional marriage is becoming obsolete for many Americans. Do you agree that the concept is outdated?  Do you believe people divorce too easily or are divorces too difficult to obtain? Thoughts? How has divorce (or marriage) impacted you or someone close to you?

31 comments:

Lat said...

That was pretty good of Jesus to espouse on spousal love and harmony.And thank you for this wonderful post.

But do you think it would've been better if he had married himself and drove home the point more solidly?

By saying this did jesus change the law or did it remain just a saying? Since people,even today,are law-oriented do you think most then accepted his saying more than the existing law,I'm considering that it didn't change.

What other saying reformations did Jesus bring for women for those times and how far did women living in societies then were able to benefit from it?

In our times,divorce and marriages are becoming fickle and without deep love and thoughts into it.Children suffer,families get broken and the cycle constantly repeats itself over the years.It's not just important to have an intact family or body, but one that is healthy,always growing in terms of love,quality and change oneself if necessary so to stay appealing to your love one.

observant observer said...

I'm single so I don't comment on the struggle of the real marriage and it's all about. But I don't think that Jesus had no vivid ground on saying about marriage because He was single, since God doesn't married even according to Muslims, so does God have none to say about marriage? LOL...God knows what the human heart is all about, so He answered the problems right into the core.

I'd say that Jesus sees problem regarding gender is the failure of men treating the other as the same human being regardless of gender.

I'd say that the church by Jesus teachings has brought the marriage into another level,a covenant with God, the religious motivation and spiritual dimension of marriage, the partnership of men and women with God to create a family. It's become the spiritual institution, no longer merely worldly institution.

Reformation comes in recognizing the core problems. Examples are given not only in words but in how Jesus have treated all those women who encountered Him and released them from their problems.

observant observer said...

Btw, I always find it rather "amusing" or "hilarious" satirically when it comes to a comment that Islam is more liberating for women since it gives women the right to divorce her husband.
I mean does the church or Christianity gives the right to a husband to divorce that a woman doesn't have the same right? hahahaaaaaa, really cute!

Kind Heart said...

Hi lovely Susanne,


Marriage and finding a wife is considered half of Islam.

the prophet encouraged the youth to get married and it is wrong to stay single and we have to get married as soon we can, aah i'm still single yet 25yr :(

there was three men, one of them said, "I will offer the prayer throughout the night forever." The other said, "I will fast throughout the year and will not break my fast." The third said, "I will keep away from the women and will not marry forever." Allah's Apostle came to them and said, "Are you the same people who said so-and-so? By Allah, I am more submissive to Allah and more afraid of Him than you; yet I fast and break my fast, I do sleep and I also marry women. So he who does not follow my tradition in religion, is not from me (not one of my followers)."

God says "And among His signs is this, that He created for you mates from among yourselves, that ye may dwell in tranquility with them, and He has put Love and mercy between your (hearts), verily in that are signs for those who reflect."[30:21]

so to be close to God is to get married and experience His sign of love and follow his prophet way, staying unmarried is inferior and you have to see my former Islamic teacher Mr Ahmed who is an imam and his wife i always finding him carrying his 3 kids on his on on his shoulder and the others holding his hands while eating icream in the amusement park, to know that this is the way God wanted us to be.


and look at The Prophet peace be upon and Aisha, his wife, went for travel with others. He asked his companions to go ahead, then, asked Aisha to race with him. (At that time Aisha was thin). She overtook him. In time Aisha, put on some weight. The Prophet asked her to race with him, hence, overtook her. He laughed and said: “this for that”, intended to say that: he had over taken her this time in return of the first time when she overtook.


you have to follow his way because he is altogether lovely and he is even mentioned by name in your bible :

prophet Muhammad (pbuh) mentioned by name in the old testament:

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is mentioned by name in the Song of Solomon chapter 5 verse 16:
"Hikko Mamittakim we kullo Muhammadim Zehdoodeh wa Zehraee Bayna Jerusalem."
"His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters
of Jerusalem."
In the Hebrew language im is added for respect. Similarely im is added after the name of Prophet Muhammad
(pbuh) to make it Muhammadim. In English translation they have even translated the name of Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) as "altogether lovely", but in the Old Testament in Hebrew, the name of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is yet present.


All the Love,
AbdalAziz

Kind Heart said...

have a look
http://www.christianfeeds.info/13757/muhammad-pbuh-mentioned-by-name-in-the-bible.html

Suroor said...

I liked this post. Very informative.

I think why Jesus didn't marry has a lot to do with how he lived and died. He was between 30 and 33 years old when he died. Some believe he was as young as 25. He also spent some years in exile. Jewish men did marry young in that time but not rabbis. Jesus was also very intelligent, a skilled labourer, literate and educated so his early life was spent learning the scriptures and languages and carpentry while other men were busy marrying women and have families.

Amber said...

I think it was a test of the line that Christ was walking. He was teaching back to the original state of things, with men and women being equal, but He still had to live under the Mosaic Law, and perfectly. So they were trying to trip Him up, to either get him to go back on the principle of His teachings - the equality of men and women or to say that the Mosaic Law was wrong and therefore take Himself outside of that Law.

I think that it's important that both parties in a marriage are able to seek a divorce on equal terms. It's not right that the man should have all the power - that he can divorce for no reason at all while the woman has to have very specific circumstances to sue for divorce and even then it relies on the man's acceptance of the divorce for it to be official.

Divorce is treated lightly by so many now days but I think part of that is because marriage is entered into so lightly. If people were more serious about marriage - if they understood that it's not just a whim but something that is a permanent vow between you before God then they wouldn't just hop in and out of it like they do.

Wafa said...

what have you said is all good and perfect for those who treat their spouse with respect and love and dignity the other deserve.
but what about the other ones?.

I like that a religion is about the good in people and how to teach them to be and do good, but -to me- the perfect one is that which looks at the rotten ones. And that's what keeps me wondering in Christianity, why this strict rule in divorce?

i understand more now but why would Jesus refused the notion of divorce.

in general, i guess divorce is a great solution especially for the battered families. I remember wishing that my parents got divorced instead of living in hell. so i guess divorce is good in a lot of cases.

while it's strict in Christianity, it's way worse in Islam where the men have all the power and it's proven how stupidly they have used it.

Great post dear :)

Niki said...

"why would Jesus refused the notion of divorce."

Because marriage represents the union between God and the church. (Ephesians 5:23-25) Husbands are supposed to love their wives as Jesus loves us. And wives are supposed to be led by their husbands and taken care of by their husbands the way we are led by and taken care of by God.

God will never seek to divorce Himself from His people. And so He doesn't want husbands (who "represent" Jesus) and wives (who "represent" the church) divorcing each other. Unless it's because of adultery.

Malachi 2:16 says that God hates "putting away". Putting away means divorce. God hates divorce.

Niki said...

I forgot to add that I wrote about marriage at my blog last year.

http://1seakell.blogspot.com/2010/04/marriage.html

Susanne said...

Lat, I enjoyed your comment. You and Kind Heart have both recently asked about Jesus' attitude towards women so I will have to one day do a post on this if I can.

If one reads the Bible in full, you realize Jesus came to earth knowing he would die. His mission was totally devoted to his Father's will and like the latter part of this passage says,

"there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

I think Jesus accepted that his mission on earth wasn't to establish a family. A man with a wife and children couldn't traipse around the country doing what Jesus did because he would have to be providing for his family, cherishing his wife and helping to raise the children. According to Jewish Law when a man married, he would take a year off of his duties such as serving in the army to stay home and get to know his wife. Jesus came to earth with a different mission in mind. Marriage, children, families are fantastic, but they are not for everyone.

"By saying this did jesus change the law or did it remain just a saying? Since people,even today,are law-oriented do you think most then accepted his saying more than the existing law,I'm considering that it didn't change."

I really can't say since I don't know the divorce statistics at that time. :) But I know Jesus wanted people to change from within. NOT because a Law or even a New Law was in effect to legislate morality. When you want to do right because God has softened your heart and you want to be kind and loving to people, it's a whole lot better than doing right only because you want to avoid the wrath of Mama, the community (jail) or God. Jesus was more concerned with people changing from the inside out. When God changes you inwardly, it IS reflected outwardly in how you treat your spouse, your neighbors and even your enemies.

I really love your last paragraph. So wise!




Observant Observer, I really loved all that you had to say in your first comment! Thanks much for what you added! I agree that God gets right to the core of the problem - our hearts. Good point.

Susanne said...

Kind Heart, my friend Samer is 25 and most of the guys his age that he went to school with are still single so you are not alone in that. I'm sure you will find a lovely spouse one of these days. Please let me know when you do so I can send my "mabroooooks" to you! :)

Thanks for the examples explaining marriage as "half of your religion." I knew marriage was important to Muslims, but not sure what religious reasons you were given for it. It's important also in my faith. We believe God instituted marriage and family and children are seen as rewards and gifts from God, however, I never was taught it was *mandatory.* As Jesus said, some people want to devote themselves fully to God - "marry" God if you will - so they don't want to marry and have children since wives, husbands, and children take a lot of time and devotion. I admire people who want to dedicate their lives fully to God in this way. Most Christians I know marry, however, and that's a great thing as well. Maybe we just have the choice in my faith to dedicate ourselves fully to God by staying single FOR HIM or marrying which is a great option too.

By the way, what about the few Muslims who either choose not to marry or never find someone willing to marry them? If marrying is HALF their religion, where does this leave them? With a 50% greater chance of going to hell than those who marry? Just curious as this "half of our religion" thing raises some questions in my mind. Thanks!

Hmmmm, I'm pretty sure when Solomon and his lover were enjoying themselves and speaking of their great love, they were NOT speaking of the future Arab prophet of Islam. :)



Suroor, thanks for what you added! I'm glad you enjoyed the post. :)

Susanne said...

Amber, thanks for addressing the "test" part of this post. I really appreciate that! Your answer makes a lot of sense.

I totally agree with what you said about both parties seeking divorce. Apparently women weren't really given much of a right - or maybe it had to be very specific (kind of like what I've read among many Muslims today) and men, OTOH, could divorce whenever and for whatever reason. Jesus in this passage made it MUCH harder by declaring to the men that it was only because of their hard hearts that divorce was permitted and he upped the ante. If you divorce your wife for any reason except adultery, YOU are an adulterer if you marry another. No wonder the disciples exclaimed it was better not to marry...a bit melodramatic maybe, but it must have been a shocking standard Jesus set when they were used to easily getting out of marriages.

Your last paragraph is so true! My preacher said he's heard of people vowing to stay together until they no longer love each other instead of the traditional "until death parts us." If we rely on gushy love-y feelings to hold a marriage together, we are doomed. Some days you just want to break the other's neck, but love is much more than romantic feelings!




Wafa', ideally men would treat their wives as Jesus treated the Church - he loved, nourished, cherished, even *gave his life* for it. But yes, reality. There are battered women and I have always heard people say you should not allow men to treat you like a punching bag. I think Jesus was raising the standard for MEN who were flippantly divorcing their wives for silly reasons (burning dinner, gaining weight, loosing their looks) and he found this awful.


Niki, thank you for adding the spiritual dimension to it! I really appreciate that. I have read your posts and you write some good ones on marriage. :)


I appreciate what all of you have added and shared! Thanks so much!

Kind Heart said...

Hey Susanne

yes the prophet said “When a person gets married he has completed half of his religion, so let him fear Allaah with regard to the other half.” and he said "the best of you are the best to their women (wives)
he said as well `The most perfect believer in faith is the one whose character is finest and who is kindest to his wife.' ( Quotes on marriage from Tirmidhi and Nasa'i)

theres is a a lot of the prophet sayings on topics of marriage and treating your family and concerning divorce. Even theres one hadith that if you raised tow daughters well God will reward you heaven.

i'm amazed that the only thing about marriage and relationship between a husband and a wife in Christianty is trying to base marrige on the relationship of the Christ Jesus with the Church, and no direct sayings or examples of wife and family treatment in the bible. Even Divorcing rights are not given?

thank you so much for your kind wishes Susanne lol if i could do it i would have gotten married when was like 16yr cause girls are so beautiful, lol of the 110 gradutes of the college of medicine it is only me and about 6 more still heavent completed half of the religion.sigh :(

one can stay single but staying single for God? that doesn't make you pure, taking care and loving your family is actually worshiping God and is better in God's sight and a person can worship God 100year but he will be inferior to the married and takes well care of his family because "the best of you are the best to their women" not those to stay in the mosque :)

you can look at those who claim they are pure and refuse marriage by looking at certain priests of a certain sect.

as far as his name it is not what you think, it is what's written and it is written Muhammad in the orginal hebrew manscript. And in uncanonized Gospel of Bernabs there is his name and even tons of his description.

Kind Heart said...

which leads me to a question why do call Christ by the name Jesus it s not his name nor was he called Jesus, because in hebrew there is no such letter or prounactaion as the letter "J" ??Neither the "J" nor the second "s" in the name Jesus is to be found in the original tongue??

please tell me the name people used to call him with

Susanne said...

Kind Heart, I appreciate your response. I hope to write a post addressing some of the issues you've mentioned because I want to explain better about Christianity and why there is not the list of rules that you expect coming from an Islamic background. I can see why you are shocked at our lack of regulation. :)

I guess we will just have to disagree on Muhammad's name being mentioned by Solomon and his lover. There is a Jewish guy who commented on a recent post. Maybe he can help us both understand what Solomon meant by going back to the Hebrew language. I'm pretty sure the gospel of Barnabas has been rejected by most Muslim scholars as a fraud written sometime in Spain during the Muslim rule there. I studied about it one time and found information that told me such things (if memory serves...lol).

About getting married, why don't you ask your mom to find you a wife if you want to marry so badly? I'm familiar with how your society finds mates so it seems all you have to do is ask her and I'm sure she will help you find a willing girl.

Best wishes and thanks for your comments. I've enjoyed getting to better know you the last few days. :)

Susanne said...

Jesus is the English word and we pronounced our Js like ...well, you know. Similar to "jeem" in Arabic. In other parts of the world, the J has a "yuh" sound. Close to your Yahya of which we say John I guess. :) Also in Spanish they have Jesus, but it's pronounced "hay soos." It's just a matter of English pronunciation. The Yeshua became Jesus to us English speakers. Does that make sense? The same with a lot of other proper names, I'm thinking. We just have our own ways of saying them. :)

Kind Heart said...

please fill his real name in these brackets for me ( ) and point where his name was mentioned

you do know the name of Christ that people and his mother used to call him with right?

Susanne said...

*sigh* You are so complicated! :-P :-D

I got this from Matthew's gospel

21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

and this from

Wikipedia:

"Jesus" (pronounced /ˈdʒiːzəs/) is a transliteration, occurring in a number of languages and based on the Latin Iesus, of the Greek Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs), itself a Hellenisation of the Hebrew יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yĕhōšuă‘, Joshua) or Hebrew-Aramaic יֵשׁוּעַ (Yēšûă‘), meaning "Yahweh delivers (or rescues)".[39][40][41] "Christ" (pronounced /ˈkraɪst/) is a title derived from the Greek Χριστός (Christós), meaning the "Anointed One", a translation of the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (Messiah).[42][43]:274-275

A "Messiah," in this context, is a king anointed at God's direction or with God's approval, and Christians identify Jesus as the one foretold by Hebrew prophets.


-------------------


Hope that helps! And hope you know I'm teasing you. I like joking. :)

Kind Heart said...

fill the brackets my Dear Susanne

his name is that his mother Mary named him and his people used to call him at the time he lived was (............)

for example:

God's last messenger name that his mother Fatemah named him and his people used to call him was (Muhammad )

Susanne said...

Oh my word, the things I do for you!

Mary called her baby boy יֵשׁוּעַ (Yēšûă')per the angel's instructions from Matthew 1:21 which I quoted above.

Is that better, your highness? :-P

The Christ/Messiah was a title. Like King, Lord, Prophet, Your Highness.

Kind Heart said...

Thanks Susanne you embarrassed me with your sweet manners

so call him by his name that his mother gave him,not "Jesus" because maybe if you called him Jesus at his time something bad would happen :P

although i still can't read it in English the word Yēšûă. I will trouble you no more.


Messiah from Massaha in hebrew and arabic means to rub over, i heard because Lady Mary rubbed him with oil when he was born he was called the messiah son of Mary.

to conclude the word Yēšûă you kindly provided shows that he was not called Jesus and there is no J or a second s in his name.Although in nearly all of your beautiful posts you never called him Yēšûă


now please go back and remove all Js and Ss and rewrite his name to Yēšûă in all of your posts.

all the best Susanne :)

Susanne said...

You said you would trouble me no more then want me to remove "Jesus" from all my posts to write Yēšûă?!

How about I assign that task to you? :-D

No, see. I speak English therefore I use English words. Even for most names. Even my maiden name is an Anglicized French name. I guess we are just weird for making words readable in our language. :-)

My name is Susanne (really Susanna) which is an English form of a Hebrew and/or Egyptian word. But see I go by Susanne because my people speak English.

Ahhh, you know all this. I think you are just in a joking mood today!

And I know you were teasing about my good manners when I have been teasing you by saying how difficult you are. :)

Thanks for the afternoon smiles, Kind Heart. I need to change your name to Teasing Heart, I think.

Salaaam!

Lat said...

I was giggling By the time I was reading the end comments :D

Thank you for your views.I understand the concept of internal change within us to bring about the desired changes.Thanks for explaining that and the commentator above as well,I think it's observant oberver.

I also like to mention some famous Muslim scholars and public commentators who didn't marry.They are Muhd b,Jarir al-Tabari,Zamakshari,Hana b.al-Siri and al-Nawawi.And there are others as well.To say that they've lost rewards and wisdom of "half of religion" is an understatement.Surely these scholars knew what it takes to be a good human being and god-fearing , no matter if one is married or not.Again loved the post and thank you,Sus!

Susanne said...

Lat, I'm glad we made you laugh. Trust me, I was giggling at Kind Heart earlier today. Not in a making fun way just he was cute in his demands to me. And I kept complying like an obedient woman! Bah!! :-P :-D

Oh, thanks for what you added. I didn't know there were any unmarried Muslim scholars. I appreciate you chiming in on that.

Hope you are having a great day!

Carmen said...

Do I think marriage is outdated? Hardly. I think we've created this horrible world around us though that diminishes the idea of faithful, true, unselfish marriage. We've also created a world where we choose to have more temptation around us via the internet and television and music.

Divorce has very much affected my family through my sister's divorce(s).

It breaks my heart to see what it does to children and sometimes I feel I see couples who don't even try to live out what love in as described in 1 Cor 13. IF we all did that, we would be able to conquer ANYthing in marriage, even infidelity.


I just posted about vows before I read this. Part of what makes our vows hard to uphold sometimes, (in my opinion) is that we don't have the real context to understand what those vows mean. I believe most people mean them with as much understanding as they have. Unfortunately, life likes to throw us some context we'd really prefer never to have to have. (At least in my experience).

Suri said...

"God's last messenger name that his mother Fatemah named him and his people used to call him was (Muhammad )"

GOOD GRIEF!It seems like I have been lied to all my life! (Muhammad's) mother's name was (Fatemah)??? I was told she was called (Aamina).

Well, I'll just have to re-do my theology and learn my brackets all over again. And I was beginning to worry I had only got (Jesus) wrong.Holy Yeshua!

Kind Heart said...

sorry my mistake prophet Muhammed's peace be upon mother was named Aminah daughter of Wahab.

my dearest mother name is Fatemah i got things mixed up, i blame that on those cupcakes mom is stuffing me with recently :(.And thanks for your advice about asking Mommy to find me a girl,I have been trying to do that but i'm shy to tell her so :(


I really wanted to stop the disccusion by accepting the name (Yeshua) for the Messiah son of Lady Mary. Yet still all the names the lovely Susanna provided for the Messiah son of Mary are not his real name that his dear mother Lady Mary and his people used to call him!

and I'm not telling his name because Susanne is refusing to aknoweldege that prophet Muhammed is is mentioned by name in the bible.

to continue about the original post did you know that prophet Muhammad died in the lap of his wife and the reports says they even kissed before he died.

please accept the prophet messege of love and his way of living because God want you to

God says "Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet whom they find written in the Torah and the Gospel with them. He enjoins upon them that which is right and forbids for them that which is evil. He makes lawful for them all things that are good and prohibits for them all that is foul and he relieves them from their burden and the fetters that they used to wear. Then those who believe in him, honor him, assist him, and follow the light which is sent down with him: they are the successful" (7):157

Susanne said...

Carmen, thanks for what you added. Yes, it breaks my heart to see how children are affected by divorces. I know sometimes they are better off if a parent was abusive, but I think probably 90% of the time, divorce is tough on them. My dad's parents divorced back in the day when it was MUCH less common and it makes me sad to think of him and his siblings not having their home intact.

I appreciate what you shared. I'll be sure to read your post on vows. :)

Susanne said...

Suri, that was amusing! Or should I say (amusing)? Or (Suri), that was amusing! :)

Susanne said...

Kind Heart, no problem in mixing up her name. We'll blame the cupcakes! :-) Thanks for putting up with my teasing. I like joking around with people so take it as a good thing if I tease you, OK? :)

I'm sorry you are too shy to tell your mom to find you a wife. I am surprised she hasn't offered since she knows how important marriage in to your faith (half your religion!), but then again I'm sure she wants to keep her Kind Heart close to home for as long as she can. It's tough on moms sometimes when their children grow up and leave home. Plus it seems she enjoys making cupcakes for you. :) You want me to tell her for you? :)

YOU know the name Mary called her baby? And you won't tell me because I won't admit Muhammad is mentioned by name in the Bible?

Oh good grief...now look who is being the tease! :-P


Yes, I heard that Muhammad died in Aisha's lap. That's sweet.

Why do you want me to accept Muhammad so much?

Thanks for your comment, Kind Heart. I hope my teasing didn't hurt you. If it did, tell me and I will try to be serious with you next time. :)