I Now Pronounce You Man and Wife

by Wendy Warner, LPC, NCC

Wendy Warner is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in private practice at Trinity Family Counseling Center. In addition to working with couples, children, and individuals, Wendy also enjoys teaching the premarital classes for all couples planning to marry at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Macomb.

Congratulations!  Now what? God’s design for marriage is intended to give couples guidance in where to go from here.

In Genesis 2:24 he clearly outlines three action steps involved in becoming man and wife.  “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

Step one says to “leave his father and mother.” By this God is saying to transition from the priority relationship with your parents over to this new priority relationship with your spouse. For some parents of the bride or groom, this is a difficult transition.  While we are always called to honor our parents, hopefully parents will respect the new couple’s biblical instruction to shift towards each other. The best gift a parent could give their newly married child is to let go.

The second action step is to “be joined to his wife.” This means to become closely attached to one another, caring for one another before all others.  This represents a commitment that you are going to be there for each other no matter what and go the distance even when it is hard.

Finally, God instructs newlyweds to “become one flesh.” This represents the sexual intimacy that is to exist only between husband and wife, but it goes beyond the physical union.  This is an emotional, spiritual and physical connection that occurs when a husband and wife are striving to love each other unconditionally, sacrificially.

So, it’s leave, cleave and become one.