No one but us

My husband said it was going to sound like an obvious truth, but it was profound and gave us much joy. The thought he passed on to me was this: No other human being has power over our marriage but him and me.

Who will venture these days on an institution that has so much arrayed against it—harmful influences in public policy, harmful influences in media, harmful influences in culture?

But my husband understood quite rightly that a culture never destroyed a marriage, pessimistic statistics never doomed a marriage, and your best friend’s bad example never destroyed a marriage. Neither can the flirtatious woman down the street. Nor the ubiquitous come-ons that pop up unbidden on our computer screens. Nor things past, nor things present, nor things future. None of these can destroy our marriage.

Temptation is indubitably an evil thing. But temptation has no power except what we cede to it. My husband and I alone are able to destroy our marriage or to grow it. My husband and I alone are the deciding factors. The force of all external influence stops at the gate of our two souls. And so, if our souls are clinging fast to Christ, nothing in the world can destroy what we have.

The helpless feeling experienced by many regarding their prospects of marital success in a godless age is a sentiment stemming from the confused notion that all influences are equal. But this is not the reality. You, husband—and you, wife—are where all these flying darts are intercepted and analyzed, accepted or expelled.

There is no power on earth or under the earth that can violate your will. I know that sounds like too grand a statement but it is true. The final line of defense against any temptation at all is you—and that is no small comfort. If it were otherwise, we could not be judged. Therefore, you need to have a healthy fear of it is your own soul’s condition, and that is a matter between you and God.

Tend to your soul daily, tend to your marriage daily, and agree together against the devil. Do this and you need not fear the barking dogs outside the window.