You Two… Build Your Own Quiet World

All things need watching, working at, caring for, and marriage is no exception. Marriage is not something to be indifferently treated or abused, or something that simply takes care of itself. Anything neglected will deteriorate. All things need attention, care and concern, and especially so in this most sensitive of all relationships of life. It isn’t difficult to prove that we are none of us perfect. When we seek to find fault there is much fault to find. And in marriage as in all else unkind faultfinding can be destructive. “In the first solitary hour . . .” pleaded on writer, “promise each other sacredly, not even in jest, to wrangle with each other, never . . . indulge in the least ill-humor . . . Next, promise each other sincerely and solemnly, never to keep a secret from each other, under whatever pretext, and whatever excuse it might be. You must continually, and every moment, see clearly into each other’s [hearts]. Even when one of you has committed a fault . . . confess it. And as you keep nothing from each other, so, on the contrary, preserve the privacies of your house . . . [your] marriage . . . [your] heart, from . . . [all others], from all the world. You two, with God’s help, build your own quiet world . . . [Let no] party stand between you two . . . Promise this to each other . . . Your souls will grow, . . . to each other, and at last will become as one.”¹ Remember to build each other up, to strengthen and sustain, to keep companionship lovely and alive. Remember dignity and respect; understanding; not expecting perfection; a sense of humor and a sense of what is sacred and serious; common purposes, common convictions, and the character to stay with a bargain, to keep a covenant⎯in these are the making of a good and solid marriage. Every marriage has a right to this. “You two, with God’s help, build your own quiet world.”