Week 4: Chapter 3 — The Sustaining Power of Marriage

1.Thomas describes the way a long marriage builds a kind of shared history and mutual knowledge that becomes a unique source of strength. How have you experienced that sustaining power in your own marriage — or longed for it?

2.He draws on the image of two people leaning against each other for warmth — from Ecclesiastes 4 — as a picture of the practical, earthy companionship marriage is designed to provide. How does the ordinary dailiness of marriage — not just its romantic peaks — serve as a form of grace?

3.Thomas discusses the way commitment itself — the fact that you have promised to stay — creates a form of security that romantic feeling alone cannot. Have you experienced that security? What does it feel like to be truly known and still chosen?