With this ring I thee wed

The past two Saturdays our family has attended 50th wedding anniversary celebrations. Last week's was for my great aunt on my dad's side. It was bit of a formal affair in their church, with everyone pretty well dressed up. It was a tad weird since most of the older relatives had not seen us in a long time (10+ years) and people I had never seen before kept coming up and giving me hugs telling me how they remembered when I was so and so tall and see how much I had grown. It was good though, I got to see a lot of pictures from my aunt and uncle's wedding and it funny to see how they have changed in 50 years.

The second celebration was today, the couple was a family my parents have known for I don't know how many years. Their kids are I guess around my parents age and they have grandkids around the same age as our family. Anyway this was a more toned down celebration in one of their daughter's homes. It was a lot of fun, I had not seen the grandkids around my age in over four years and it was good to see them again if only for a little while.

Even though both of these celebrations were different they both had the common trait of being a 50th wedding celebration. With nearly 50% of marriages ending in divorce today, to be married for five decades is is something to really step back and commend. I mean 50 years! That is twice my age! I pray when I get married I am blessed with a Godly wife who will be at my side after fifty years and more. To be married for 50 years, it just blows my mind, and at the same time I feel saddened.

We live in a society that almost frowns on the concept of marriage, it is one in which living together before marriage is acceptable, one in which sexual immorality is almost a given for relationships in the secular world. Morality is a dirty word. Who are you to question my lifestyle, whatever makes me happy or feel good has to be right...There is this song called "If it makes you happy" by Sheryl Crow and the chorus goes something like "If it makes you happy, it can't be that baaaaad"... There is no moral compass whatsoever in our society everyone is their own "moral master" there are no absolutes or a supreme God. There is nothing but confusion and chaos and yet the world wonders why we can't all just get along, why unspeakable evils are committed. We are lost with no compass in a sea of darkness, and that truly is something to be saddened about.

Ok sorry I got on a bit of rant there, it happens to me a lot when I think about our society :( It sometimes just seems like the world is on a train, building the tracks as it goes, with no clear direction. Unfortunately the church is still on the train, sure we will not go into some of the more evil cabins but we can't seem to just get off this long black train.