Three Stranded Cord

I love to sincerely apologise for the lateness of this post as scheduled. This isn't intentional but resulting from my ill health and I think its for a purpose.

Its wonderful realising we weren't made to be wholly introverts, even when you can classified yourself as such; we always want to find someone to tell a story, someone to air our problems, share our visions and dreams, share our pains, someone to love & be loved and confide to etc.
That's really perfect, sweet and wonderful especially in marriage, I can imagine it(even though I'm not married).
When it comes to marriage where you completely spend the rest of your life with each other notwithstanding the differences & challenges that abounds, it means a careful decision need be made.

Two, the scriptures say is better than one, perhaps is one of the reasons people love to find a companion.
Finding a compatible partner who will love, cherish, tolerate and caution/ rebuke your errors and mistakes is what everyone seek in a relationship.
But the sincere truth remains that no such perfect person exist alone and as such, no matter how compatible you both might be, your differences remain, your errors will surface someday. It's through this married period that you both begin to understand more of the differences you never noticed during courtship and work on each other.

No matter how loved you both might be, fault will be seen, each person will be provoked or err someday.
How then can both person from a different background and culture go together?
They must be able to see or reason in agreement.
One party must be willing to believe, sacrifice even when it hurts and accept the other's view and ability even if their reasons may not be realistically visible.
Each person must be willing to forgive and let go of each other's error.
This can only be possible if love exist amongst you.

It is love that corrects with respect, teaches without pride, rebuke with humility and consistently make effort in patience for both to see everything in the same perspective in other to move in one direction.

The question then is:
Will it always be so?
Won't there be time to probably get angry because s/he isn't teachable?
Won't their be time for s/he to see in my own view?
Must it always be you, you, you and you?
What about me?

The truth is, our spirit and soul being resides in this mortal body thus, for every effort we make, someday the body will grow weary and we will gradually get tied of:
Being patient and kind to the other person if its not also coming from them.
Being humble and subjecting our views to he's/ her's.
Being selfless for the benefit of the other.
Believing in him/her.
Or even get tied of tolerating the other etc.
You'll hear other voices saying enough, s/he isn't ready to learn, s/he is not appreciative, rude and that and that and that.
The weaknesses that makes us human, that we thought had disappeared will again begin to germinate.
The errors, faults and shortcomings you taught were negligible has now become too great and difficult to overlook, you begin to get irritated even by the things that had previously made you smile, brought you laugher or even completes your day; love begins to wax cold.

It could in fact be the other party and you're making every effort to save it yet its not working and your mindset could be nothing but giving up.
The thoughts to stay away or even divorce will gradually usurp and then foolish ideas that will facilitate it will begin to flow from nowhere.
Oh! God...
Where did I get it all wrong?
Why didn't I notice these things before now??
Why didn't I follow that guy/girl???
Through these times, 'love' has been the only bond between you both. Why is it waxing cold now? Where has it gone to?? What else is missing???
Just be patient a little more and you've got to know why.

A friend of mine joined me to a wedding in the Church and after every inquisition from both parties and the congregation on reasons why the couples may not be joined together, finding none, the priest declared them husband & wife, with their hands knitted with a pastoral stole.
And she asked me ' Why is the pastor tying them?'
Then I trying giving a simple illustration to settle her mind but postponed the discussion further till I'm able to get an illustrative tool.
Fortunately later during the day, I got two kind of braided ropes I needed for a work. One, with simple double braid and the other triple and I gave them to her as little assignment to help me out in unbraiding each.
It took her quite sometime to loose the triple braided rope cos she had to roll each single length over the other till its loose end to end.
When she was done with that, she exhaled and said ' e no easy oooo- its not easy'.
Then she quickly located each pieces of the double braided rope and simply held each end, drew it and extended each single length.
Then I asked her, how did you see the ease in loosing both types of rope? How come you finished the second one so easily??
She smiled and said ' the double braids is simpler, in fact very simpler'
Then I drew her attention back to the weeding and explained to her thus:
Each two person finds something interesting amongst each and that brings a feeling of mutual benefit and love in them. When both desires and continue to see more of that, it gives them the propensity that they both can make something good out of it.
They may go forward searching and comparing their divine purpose, goals and aspirations to see that both are compatible or one can compliment the other.
They will then decide whether they can spend the rest of their life with each other after other relevant considerations.
And then a decision for marriage is made.
The stole with which the pastor tied them symbolically represent a Third Strand, a Sweetener, a Bond to keep them together in union till they're parted by death.
That answers your question I'm sure?

Having seen, known and recognised possible weaknesses and strengths in each other, does it tell if each person is void of errors and faults other than those known?
Of course not.
Well, yes to some anyway.
But circumstances abound to separate you,
Forces are there to pull you apart,
Finances will attempt to,
Friends and relatives may do same,
Irritating attitudes will so same.

Your love will grow weak but Christ is both the Bond and the Third Strand that will keep you together, actively bonded, unbreakable, tough, continually loving and moving.

Take away the Third Strand, the bond is weak and bound to be broken.
Take away the Third Strand, there's no marriage sweetener.
Take away the Third Strand, each strand only see but itself. Envy will flow, hatred will flow, jealousy will return, pride will tell you' I'm still here', and selfishness will say ' I'm part and parcel of you, did you forget?'
But when Christ- Third Strand is in place, He does not only knit both of the two, He intertwine with each strand (person) wholly, creating a uniformity and homogeneity in all strand making them just Three Strand but One.

P.S: Let me use this medium to say congratulations to those whose image appear here while praying that their bonding strand be found in Christ.

If this pieces has blessed you, find out what number of strand your union is. If you're yet marriage, be sure in both cases you're bonded/ will be bond by nothing else other than Christ.
It can only be Three Strand.

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