“Sex, Marriage & Fairytales” || Spoken Word
Just another brilliant piece by Jefferson Bethke that I've been meaning to share.
Read.
Be attentive.
Close your eyes.
Listen.
Feel it.
Enjoy it.
Live it.
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I realized Disney movies and chick flicks, they’ve
put us in a weird position,
They’ve distorted our reality, we forget
they are fiction,
Because in marriage we either get better or
bitter, either joy or remorses,
Whatever were doing ain’t working, just
look at the rate of divorces
So, how’s your marriage? I mean c’mon let’s
just be honest,
Marriage seems to some more like a prison,
than the paradise they were promised
We thought marriage was supposed to fulfill
us and make us happy, not lonely
But the truth is His first priority is
making you holy.
You say “no one told me,” and it feels so
odd
That dating felt like a vacation, while
marriage feels like a job,
Yet the secret of joy, if we just pull back
our facade,
Is realizing most problems arise when we
elevate our spouse to God
Without knowing it we’ve fulfilled romans
1:25
By our actions exchanged the truth about
God for a lie,
We’ve exchanged God for lesser, created
things,
It’s like a husband trading his wife for a 2d
image on a screen,
Hoping it’ll set us free, just to find on
the fumes were choking,
Cuz if your marriage rests on anything but
Jesus, it’s resting on something broken.
Yet guys continually sacrifice their
marriage on the altar of sex and lust,
I mean if our dollars were honest they’d
say in “pleasure we trust”
So men grow up, put down the controller,
How about you lead her with grace, instead
of trying to control her
Now I’ve never been married but I’m a
product of one that was non-existent,
So don’t tell me I don’t understand, don’t
tell me I just don’t get it
So for the singles, become friends first,
before you become lovers,
Pursue Christ as your foundation, before
you get under the covers,
Because believe me a strong friendship
before marriage, will make a good marriage after,
friendship isn’t just sex, its deep
conversation and laughter.
I mean some spouses barely even like each
other, and the marriage seems like a dead end.
You might share a checkbook and a bed, but
are you actually friends?
I mean if marriage isn’t a commitment, then
what’s the point of the vows we say?
Til death do us apart, really means until
the feelings goes away.
Like, “ill stay with him but only until it
gets tough and my love shifts”,
But I say imagine if a parent took that
perspective with her kids,
Like can’t you see it, the minute the kid
spills food on the floor,
The mom saying “son I’m leaving, I’m just
not in love with you anymore.”
No its just like marriage, to last you need
the strength from above,
Because it’s not the love that sustains the
promise, it’s the promise that sustains the
love.
I mean think about it, out of anyone who
has had the right to leave?
God had every reason in the world, yet he
still came for you and me,
And on the cross he paid it all he took our
shame and set us free,
When he could’ve called down legions of
angels, he chose to stay on that tree.
From the cross he looks you in the eye, and
says I’m taking this for my bride,
When you trust in me, you no longer have to
hide!
Because of me it is finished, you have been
made new!
Spotless, blameless there’s no sin in you!
His death was a proposal, he wanted you no
matter the cost,
Where some guys propose on a knee, Jesus
proposed on a cross.
So whether husband or wife, read Ephesians
5,
Wife honor your husband, husbands give up
your life,
Just like Jesus gave himself, for his bride
the church,
So men lead by serving, by putting her
first
Lastly both spouses die to self, put your
flesh on a life sentence,
Because you don’t fall out of love as much
as you fall out of repentance.
- Jefferson Bethke
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Flavour Of The Day #10