A Word from Bob: With this being Valentines’ Weekend, I thought I’d share a post on marriage. I’m taking today’s thoughts from my new book Gospel-Centered Marriage Counseling.
Leave, Cleave, Weave, and Receive
Every pastor and biblical counselor wants to help couples enjoy a God-glorifying, mutually-meaningful marriage. Many of us have used the Genesis 2:23-25 creation marital narrative of “leave, cleave, weave, and receive.”
So why are so many Christian marriages still struggling? Perhaps because we’ve used these four “pillars” in a solution-focused way, instead of in a gospel-centered, soul-u-tion-focused manner. I confess I did that for several years when I began offering marriage counseling. So, I want us to think together about how to use these pillars to address heart motivation when seeking to build oneness in marriage.
Oneness in Marriage Pillar #1: “Leaving”
In Genesis 2:24, we read:
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother…”
The Hebrew word for “leave” means to sever, cut, untie. We might say, “cut the apron strings”—meaning to cut the umbilical cord of dependence upon parents. Throughout the first five books of the Old Testament, Moses used this Hebrew word with the idea of forsaking, especially forsaking one allegiance
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