In two days I am performing a marriage ceremony and I am currently in the process of doing premarital counseling with another couple and I just finished reading John Piper’s new book, This Momentary Marriage (which is excellent — a review will be coming next week).
So I’ve been thinking a lot about weddings and marriage and what makes a marriage work well.
And my thoughts drifted back again to a poem that I often partially quote in marriage ceremonies (I will again this weekend), written by John Piper.
I summarize it this way:
We should love our wives more than we do and less than we might.…
To love her, love her more than wealth.…
To love her, love her more than friends.…
To love her, love her more than ease…and more than sex…and more than art…and more than fame…and more than breath.
Yes, love her, love her more than life.…
Go love her as your earthly best.
But, lest your love become a fool’s façade, be sure to love her less than God.…
The greatest gift you give your wife is love God above her life.
And thus I bid you now to bless: Go love her more by loving less.
You can read the entire poem, “Love Her More and Love Her Less” at Desiring God.
Words of Grace 