“A woman often seems to test her man’s capacity to remain unperturbed in his truth and purpose. She tests him to feel his freedom and depth of love, to know that he is trustable. Her tests may come in the form of complaining, challenging him, changing her mind, doubting him, distracting him, or even undermining his purpose in a subtle or not-so-subtle way.
A man should never think his woman’s testing is going to end and his life will get easier. Rather, he should appreciate that she does these things to feel his strength, integrity, and openness. Her desire is for his deepest truth and love. As he grows, so will her testing.”
— David Deida
Marriage
is one of the most satisfying and difficult undertakings of the human soul. But there are some very practical tips that you can learn to make your marriage as strong as possible.
Leaving Your Parents To Cleave To Your Spouse
The following is a small portion of an excellent eight part radio interview series which was put together by the ministry of Family Life Today. It was titled, “Becoming One: God’s Blueprints for Marriage” and Dennis Rainey and Bob Lepine were the hosts (afterward, we have a link to an additional article posted on the Family Life web site):
For this cause, a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh, and the man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:24-25)
Dennis Rainey: We want to look at the whole aspect of how you leave father and mother to establish this new union. And at the outset I want to say there is a lot of emotionally deep water around this subject of leaving your father and mother to establish a new marriage relationship.
Bob Lepine: I was reading recently in Dr. Dan Allender’s book, “Intimate Allies,” and he made the statement that, in his experience, he could trace 90% of marital discord back to a failure to leave.
Cleaving Rather than Leaving – Marriage Message #167
Some spouses set themselves up to leave their marriages because they never properly “cleaved” to their spouse in the first place.
The Bible says in Genesis 2:24, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” As author Dennis Rainey says of this verse,
“The word, ‘cleave,’ in the Hebrew language means to literally ‘stick like glue.’ It means to cling. Perhaps a modern-day illustration would be to take two metals or objects and super-glue or weld them together to become inseparable — bonded together.
“That’s what God wants us to do in the marriage relationship. He wants us to leave our father and mother. He wants us to forsake dependence upon them, and He wants us to turn to another person, our spouse, and be committed to one another for a lifetime.”
In this message, we’re going to look at the subject of leaving and cleaving from a variety of sources, to gain a better understanding of what we commit to when we marry. Even if you’ve been married 50 years, you can still back up and do things right if haven’t up until now. Each day can bring a new beginning.