Are Wedding Vows Eternal Love?

We attended another wedding again today.  I was expecting the vows to be unique, since this seems to be a trend. 

Young people in this digital era often shun traditions, because they have their own minds and they want their own words on this important day of their lives to be immortalized. 

Today, too, it seems easy to write one's love for a would-be spouse, because there are many primers and tutorials on the Net: How to write your own wedding vows. These even include a choice of moods: funny, witty, sentimental, happy, wishful, you name it, you can find one online. 

But no matter how they are beautifully written or said at the altar, wedding vows are about eternal love.  During that part of the ceremony, guests sit up in attention, straining their ears to hear what those words are. 

Unfortunately, despite all these love avowals, the number of divorces and annulments are heartbreaking. Researchers estimate that "41 percent of all first marriages end in divorce, and 8.6 percent of second marriages end in divorce." Alarming and heartbreaking. 

Quite a few of the marriages where I was a ninang are now broken—and  children are always the helpless and innocent victims. Most of the well-publicized unions which ended in divorce are those of celebrities. There are very few that last "for as long as we both shall live."

One of these lasting and well-celebrated marriages is Princess Elizabeth's (now known as The Queen).  She married Philip Mountbatten, a former prince of Greece and Denmark, in November 1947; they have been married for 64 long years.  

It's heartbreaking that wedding vows are no longer taken seriously. 

Well, many who marry and express eternal love at the altar may not actually believe that marriage is a holy union. It's not God Who unites them but the law. Therefore, their vows to each other mean little to nothing.

The Bible does not explicitly mention wedding vows for the groom or bride as requirements in a marriage. But it says in Hebrews 13:4 (NLT), "Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery." 

"Faithfulness to one another" is more than a vow. It is eternal love.  

 

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