God’s Version of Superglue

Bible Reading:   Genesis 2:18-25

A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. Genesis 2:24

There’s an incredible secret you need to know about married love. And you’re old enough to know all about it. Ready? Here it is: If you want to have a long-lasting, love-filled marriage someday, you need one special ingredient: superglue.

You might be thinking, Whoa! God wants me and my spouse to glue our eye­brows together so we’ll always see eye-to-eye?

Not exactly. God has a deeper kind of glue. Genesis 2:24 commands a man to be glued to his wife. That’s what “joined” means. When husband and wife are glued to­gether with God’s superglue, they become one in a marriage that will last.

Falling in love—the emotional side of love—is a lot like the glue stick you have in your desk at school. It isn’t strong enough to hold a marriage together. Even in the best relationships, feelings come and go. They don’t make an unbreakable bond or a lifelong marriage.

But there’s another kind of glue. It’s like an industrial-strength adhesive. It’s the only stuff that holds a marriage together. It’s the superglue of commitment.

Oh, you’re thinking, you mean having a marriage ceremony. No! Saying “I do” in front of a minister and signing a marriage license are part of it, but commitment is way deeper than that. Commitment means choosing daily to give yourself to your partner—and then the two of you giving yourselves to God as one. That kind of glue welds people together with such power that they can endure all the pressing, pulling, stretching, and twisting that life inflicts on them.

Someday your prince or princess will probably come along. You’ll see fireworks explode in the sky. You’ll hear guitars rock when he or she speaks. And you’ll swear that you’re in heaven whenever you’re with that special person. That’s the falling-in-love thing, and it’s a beautiful experience. But putting a marriage together with that feeling alone is like trying to hold two bricks together with paste. You’ll be ready to get serious about marriage only when you pop this important question: “Am I ready to glue myself to this person for keeps?”

When you and your loved one share the bond of commitment to God and to each other, the fireworks and guitars won’t disappear. They just won’t be as important as the superglue.

TALK: What kind of glue are you counting on to keep your marriage together someday?

PRAY: God, teach us each day for the rest of our lives what true, loving commitment looks like.

ACT: Write a note to say thanks to the people who show you what the superglue of married commitment looks like.