A very rich man sponsors a beauty contest and marries the most beautiful contestant.
A woman is widowed, returns to her husband’s hometown with her mother-in-law and marries one of her husband’s relatives.
A father asks a servant to look for a suitable wife for his son. The servant succeeds in finding a woman from among the father’s relatives.
A man who wronged his brother, stays with his uncle, and ends up working for him for 14 years total to marry a cousin. (He actually was tricked into marrying her cousin’s elder sister first.)
A holy man marries a prostitute knowing full well she will be unfaithful and break his heart time and again.
No, these are not scenes from popular daytime soap operas you can watch from TV. They were actually taken from the Bible. With these in mind, there is one thing we can learn from these stories about finding a husband or a wife, and that is…
Nothing.
Scripture does not instruct us how to find the right spouse. We are not even told what signs to look for when trying to discern if a particular person is the Mr. or Ms. Right for us.
However, there are some principles we can glean from God’s word that can help us while we search for a mate.
- We should marry a Christian. “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Cor. 6:14)
- We should abstain from sexual immorality. “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” (1 Cor. 6:18)
- Keep in mind that God is the creator of the family. “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” (Gen. 2:18)
- We should pray for God’s guidance. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Matt. 7:7)
- We should continue to live our lives in faith knowing that God is with us every step of the way. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” (Prov. 3:5,6)
God has given us the freedom to choose our partner for life, but like everything else in the Christian’s life, we must do so in faith.