LOVE TO BUILD A RELATIONSHIP

The three most important ingredients to successful marriage have been terribly abused. Some fall in love and never married, others marry but are not in love. Millions of people experiment with sex without even being in love. Still others are in love and are married but fail to understand the importance of a wholesome and proper sexual relationship. Not many seem to be putting all three - love, marriage and sex- together in the right order. Almost everyone has experienced what he or she thought was love, only to find out it really wasn't. Perhaps your case was typical. It first happened in the teen years when you were first attracted to a member of the opposite sex. There was a strange, tingling, excited feeling that would not just in away. You thought you say shooting stars. Felt like you were walking on air, you could have danced all the night. Later, you came to realize that was not love at all. Your parents tried to tell you it was puppy love. It was just infatuation. Maybe you even experienced these feelings of love three or four times each time thinking this new feeling was the really one true forever love. Unfortunately thousands of people make terrible mistakes because of not knowing how to handle adolescent emotions. It often leads to premarital sexual experience, which in turn often leads to premarital pregnancy and millions of babies born out of wedlock every year. Others misinterpreting their feelings of love leap into premature marriages. A large percentage of those who married for the sale of the children or for religious or financial reasons.they find they are not really in love at all. Where and when to fit the sexual relationship into this picture is often confusing. The signals of our liberated society tell up to practice sex whenever, however and in whatever manner we want to. "Consenting adults" is the catch phrase. The God given formula for happiness and success in marriage is usually totally ignored. Be in love, marry and have a healthy sexual relationship. You cant build a marriage without love. Sex should NEVER be practiced outside the confines of marriage.

WHAT IS LOVE?

Love is the best word to describe God. The appostle John simply stated it: 'God is love' (1 John4:8). From what God is and what God does we can understand the deep and significant emotion called love. Gods love was most manifested by the ultimate gift he gave mankind: 'For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish but have evalasting life' (John 3:16). Love, you see, is not a feeling of selfish tingling emotions like the flaming sunset in an orange colored sky. Its not the feeling of desire and passion so often mistaken as love. Real love is the ability to put ones selfish interests and feelings aside and give to the other person. Outside of marriage, the passions that lead to sexual experimentation are nothing more than lust. Can you imagine a teenage couple necking in the backseat of a car whispering to each other, 'Oh, how i lust after you'? No, they say, 'Oh, how i love you, i love you, i will always love you.' But what they really mean is, 'I am lusting after you.' The chances are that the affair will last only a short time and they will each be whispering the same thing to another person later on. Love-real-love is not even possible without degree of maturity. Mature love that prepares a couple for a lifetime of marriage and commitment begins slowly and grows. Love never stand still. Of course love has to start from somewhere. Romantic love begins with an attraction to a member of the opposite sex. There will probably be a begining feeling of infatuation but love that leads to marriage must grow beyond that and not be based on attraction alone.