Mennonite Girls Can Cook is a collection of recipes which were posted daily for a period of ten years from 2008 to 2018. We have over 3,000 delicious recipes that we invite you to try. The recipes can be accessed in our recipe file by category or you can use the search engine.

Recipe Search

Bread for the Journey ~ On Marriage


We've just seen another Valentines Day come and go...
and for some, it was just as they had hoped and for others there is a big sigh of relief that it's over for another year.

Before we tuck away the last of the pink napkins and eat up the last heart shaped sugar cookies...
I would like to share with you one of my favorite quotes on marriage and our responsibility in it.
At first glance Bonhoeffer's quote may seem like a set of values from another place in time but I find it has a message that is timeless and if applied is powerful to make our marriages noteworthy and inspirational.

 Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, put into a Nazi concentration camp during World War II for his staunch resistance to Hitler and his genocidal persecution of the Jews. He was executed by hanging shortly before Germany surrendered in 1945. During his time in prison his niece was married and if he would have been able he would have taken her wedding ceremony.

His sermon was smuggled out of prison and read out loud at her wedding and I share a short portion with you here today to perhaps challenge your thinking on marriage and to encourage you to see your responsibility in your marriage in a new way.  If you are in the planning stages of your marriage I would encourage you to seek a godly marriage course that will get you off to the best possible start.


“Marriage is more than your love for each other. It has a higher dignity and power, for it is God's holy ordinance, through which He wills to perpetuate the human race till the end of time. In your love you see only your two selves in the world, but in marriage you are a link in the chain of the generations, which God causes to come and to pass away to His glory, and calls into His kingdom. In your love, you see only the heaven of your own happiness, but in marriage you are placed at a post of responsibility towards the world and mankind. Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more than something personal - it is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man.” 
― Dietrich BonhoefferLetters and Papers from Prison



6 comments:

  1. Thank you , Lovella. I admire Bonhoeffer and treasure his writing. These words from his wedding sermon .. call us back to view marriage from God's holy plan and design.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mr. Bonhoeffer is a modern day saint. It was my privilege to lead my husband to Christ only five days before he died, very suddenly and unexpectedly. Those who have a Christian marriage, have a marriage that will stand the tests that come with the years.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you for the encouraging words on marriage. It sure takes the ordinance of marriage to another level! May God help us to carry out his purpose with agape love. ~Elaine

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sometimes there is no help for marriages, not even Gods!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Small error; the war ended and Bonhoeffer was executed in 1945, not 1943 as you stated.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. oh my...I knew that...I will correct it now...thankyou!

      Delete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.