A wedding ceremony is one thing, but a marriage? Well, that's entirely different. Any bride

and groom will admit that the wedding is the easy part. The true test comes with time.

Today on Insight for Living, Juxwendal continues his classic series called Hope Again. We're

looking at 1 Peter 3 verses 1 through 7 for biblical advice on cultivating strong relationships

between husbands and wives. With all the outside pressure on families today, it's important

to understand the keys to building harmony in the home. Shock titled his message, Hope

Beyond I Do.

My thoughts in this message have to do with the give and take of domestic harmony.

Washing down to chapter 3 verse 1, Peter comes to the subject at hand, the subject of marriage.

First of all, wives, God says in this passage, verses 1 and 2, analyze your actions. In the same

way, wives, be submissive to your own husbands, so that even if any of them are disobedient to the

word, they may be one without a word by the behavior of their wives, by the actions, by the conduct,

by the behavior of their wives, as they, that is, the husbands, observe your chaste and respectful

behavior. You see wives, you are not responsible for your husband's life. You are responsible

for your life. You cannot make your husband something he is not. Only God can do that.

The second piece of advice is from verse 3, watch your adornment, watch your adornment.

In these verses, verses 3 and 4, Peter puts his finger on outer beauty, which is verse 3,

and inner beauty, which is verse 4. Let's take the first one in verse 3, the outer beauty.

Let not your adornment be external only, braiding the hair, wearing gold jewelry, and putting on dresses.

I am grateful for the editors of our Bible who have added the word only. Before it was added,

some preachers had the audacity to say that braiding the hair and wearing gold jewelry and putting

on dresses all fell in the category of being disobedient to God. I never could figure out how putting

...