Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Blink and It's Gone

It's hard to believe it's November already. I was reading my past posts and it seems like yesterday when I last blogged, but the date shows two months have subtly slipped by. It amazes me how quickly time passes, and as a mother and a teacher, it seems like there is never enough time.

In less than two weeks my twin sons will be celebrating their 18th birthday. It seems like yesterday when I brought them home from the hospital and sat on the couch crying as they both cried in stereo. I was a terrified young mother of two precious babies and it was time to think of someone other than myself for the second time in my life. To sacrifice for my sons has been an awesome privelege, but sacrificing for my husband has been a difficult journey.

My marriage is an adventure, which is both challenging and rewarding. In a culture where traditional marriage is under attack, divorce is the norm, and children are treated as possessions in nasty battles, I have been blessed with a lasting and happy marriage. Though my eighteen year marriage has been a bumpy road to travel, it has also been an exciting journey of love. My husband and I have chosen our marriage over self many times throughout the years, and with our sacrifice, we have found great joy in each other and the family we have built.

In our society today, we are still fighting about marriage and who can get married. We have lost focus in the middle of this war, while many battles have been fought defending traditional marriage and promoting modern unions. We have lost focus about what marriage is all about in the first place. Now, judges and politicians are demanding a definition of marriage in order to say who can get married in our country. Unfortunately, the question of the purpose of marriage is clouded by the demands for individual rights. For me, marriage is about sacrifice, for your spouse, your children, your community, and your country. But because of all this fighting and confusion, marriage has become a game, and no one is the winner.

I believe marriage is a union between one man and one woman and it is the most solid foundation for bringing children into the world. Strong family units create strong societies, and the new American family televised in our modern culture doesn't even begin to stand against the trials and tribulations of the world. Instead we have let the selfish desires of individuals influence the real purpose of marriage. Marriage, for thousands of years, had the essential purpose of building families, which in turn built societies. In modern years, marriage has become nothing more than a cultural controversy of who can get married and for what reasons. And in the midst of all this arguing, families are divorcing, wars are being waged between parents and children, and courts are settling heated family disputes. All of this bitter division has cost our country, not only money, but it has cost us our unity.

Maybe we need to stop fighting, and start loving. Maybe we need to respect one another and support marriage as it has been since the beginning of time for the sake of the common good. Maybe we need to act unselfishly and sacrifice our individual wants for the benefit of the whole group. It's time to decide why we have marriage in the first place and then defend the very purpose of it. Marriage is the foundation for families and the solid rock on which our country stands...without strong marriages and families, what will happen to our society?

Maybe it's time, we the people of the United States of America make the ultimate sacrifice...let marriage be!

Ultimate Sacrifice

There’s deep sorrow but no contempt for this world of death and despair.

Who’s at fault for our human condition?

If all are innocent, can death be fair?

There’s deep loneliness to try to attempt to live completely unique and unaware.

Who’s responsible for this worldly opposition?

God alone is sovereign, should we ask with prayer?

There’s deep awe in tempting our God for His passion is to especially care.

Who’s going to give eternal life with His mission?

Why recklessly refuse His Grace that is abundantly rare?

There’s deep desire to love and be loved only a few are exempt from His plan to pair.

Who’s willing to watch over God’s marriage tradition?

It’s time to let Christ lead us, In His sacrifice we must share.

With Love, Kristin A. Ball

February 26, 2001