"I am tired of hearing sentimental talks about marriage. At weddings, in church, in Sunday School, much of what is said has no more depth than what we can read on a typical commercial postcard. Marriage is, without a doubt, many things, but never mere sentimentality. Marriage is truly something wonderful, but also something very hard. In marriage, there is joy and empowerment, but also blood, sweat, and tears; defeats that teach us humility and victories that leave us exhausted. I don't know any couple who, a few weeks after getting married, can talk about their marriage as a fairy tale come true. Therefore, it should not surprise us that the only reference phrase in Paul's well-known discourse in Ephesians 5 is the one we find in the verse cited above. There are days when, after exhausting efforts to try to reach a mutual understanding, the most you can do is sigh and acknowledge that 'Marriage is a profound mystery!' There are many times when we find ourselves perplexed by a puzzle we don't know how to solve, in a labyrinth we don't know how to get out of." (Excerpt from Chapter 1)
