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    It Takes Two: A Quest for Balance in Marriage and Relationships
    It Takes Two: A Quest for Balance in Marriage and Relationships
    It Takes Two: A Quest for Balance in Marriage and Relationships
    Ebook85 pages52 minutes

    It Takes Two: A Quest for Balance in Marriage and Relationships

    By Francis Bob Alonge

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    About this ebook

    This is a book about love. It is a book about making marriage work, a book about creating an environment that guarantees the fulfillment of both parties in a marriage union. It explores why societies and cultures have found it difficult to achieve true balance between the roles and responsibilities of both genders in a marriage union.

    The premise of this book is based on the fact that the cultures of this world are extremely diverse. The differences in beliefs, methodology, preferences and even our basic sociology are profuse. As copious as our disparity may be, one thing can be seen in every culture, the imbalance between the genders in marriage. The domination and suppression of women is universal. The other extreme is a liberation ideology that destroys the very foundations that make love flourish and marriages healthy.

    This is a book about love. It is about creating an environment in a home where love can truly flourish. It is about making marriage and relationships work. Francis Bob Alonge paints a vivid picture in this book, of the kind of love we all crave for but yet only few ever dare to pursue. He introduces God's idea of balance between the genders, with illustrations and stories that cut through the usual mindsets. He presents a fresh paradigm that is actually achievable if we embrace it.

    Francis Bob Alonge presents a practical template that is built upon deep spiritual truths that will help to achieve a home or a relationship where everybody is somebody and where the deepest needs are met

    The book is practical and easy to apply in everyday life. It approaches the solutions proffered from the perspective of a Judeo-Christian world view. It's simple and easy to understand illustrations cut through the usual arguments and mindsets that makes it hard for change to happen and it presents a new paradigm for marriage and relationships.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateFeb 14, 2014
    ISBN9781483521435
    It Takes Two: A Quest for Balance in Marriage and Relationships

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      Book preview

      It Takes Two - Francis Bob Alonge

      Alonge

      INTRODUCTION

      THE WEDDING SCENE

      As I rose up to take the podium and conduct the ceremony, I looked at the couple. They were two people who were obviously in love with one another and desired to spend the rest of their lives with each other. In my heart I asked the question, Is that all it takes to have a good marriage?

      Is love all it takes to make a good marriage?

      I looked at the congregation looking on with great anticipation at what was about to happen. Many of them were family and friends who would have some measure of influence upon what this new home will turn out to be. Some of them, however, would view the occasion as another societal obligation, an opportunity to frolic and display the latest additions to their wardrobes. I wondered how many of them actually understood the implications of what was about to take place. I then looked at the groom. The responsibility of ensuring that this ceremony would translate into a lifetime of joy and blessing lay squarely upon his shoulders. Whatever would become of this union was predicated upon his own willingness to yield to the counsel of God. I realised that whatever his wife would turn out to be, as their relationship developed was dependent on his own input into her life. A question came up in my mind as I looked at him and I then realised that it would be a good theme for the sermon that I was about to deliver at the occasion.

      WHAT WILL YOU CALL HER?

      After I was through with the initial protocol of prayer and greetings, I introduced my sermon by pointing at the bridegroom and I asked, What will you call her?

      This question has become the theme of this portion of this book. Before I dive into the discourse, I would like to make my aspiration very clear. Apart from asking you this very serious question, I would also like to challenge you to pursue a state of balance in your marriage.

      THE CULTURES OF THE WORLD

      The cultures of this world are extremely diverse. The differences in beliefs, methodology, preferences and even our basic sociology are profuse. As copious as our disparity may be, one thing can be seen in every culture. It has been present through many generations of human history. It has been persistent and prevalent in every human civilization. It has remained undaunted by time, geography or technology. Although, it finds peculiar manifestations in each culture, some being more obvious than others, it is a universal predicament. I am referring to the domination and suppression of women.

      This inability to achieve balance in the role and relationship between the genders has sparked off all sorts of extremes. At this very moment in time, mankind struggles to find a definition for marriage and the family. The more developed cultures are evolving an ideology of gender independence and at the same time, the belief that genders are identical in role, responsibility and propensity. This has resulted in an unprecedented rise in societal and personal dysfunction and a disillusioned generation. The more underdeveloped cultures, however, bury their head in the traditions and unproductive concepts that have trailed generations and kept them in poverty and ignorance.

      Is there balance somewhere? What is the truth in the midst of all of this confusion? What is the opinion of the Maker, the One who made them male and female in the first place? Does God have a solution to this quest?

      QUESTIONS

      i. How many failed marriages do you know?

      ii. How many of these marriages started off with a glorious wedding ceremony?

      Who carries a greater burden to ensure that the marriage succeeds?

      Do you know of any culture, or people group that practice balance in marriage?

      Genesis 2:22-23

      And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.

      Genesis 3:20

      And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

      Did you notice that what Adam called his wife changed after the fall and the entry of sin. She was once

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