The Sacred Search Quotes

“I love being married to a beautiful woman; it’s a blessing I won’t even try to deny. But I treasure, even more, being married to a godly woman.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What if It's Not about Who You Marry, but Why?

“In other words, without discounting how intoxicating beauty can be, marry a woman whose character you respect, whose strengths and gifts you admire, and whose spiritual walk in the Lord is something you want to emulate.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What if It's Not about Who You Marry, but Why?

“Your best chance at sexual satisfaction in marriage is not to focus on appearance alone but rather to find a woman of virtue. Proverbs 31 describes her as a woman who “fears the LORD” (v. 30). When a woman is motivated by kindness, compassion, generosity, and understanding; when she is good at forgiving (because every husband needs plenty of forgiveness); when she is desirous to serve as Jesus models service, she’s going to be a very satisfying sexual partner and an overall kind wife as well.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What if It's Not about Who You Marry, but Why?

“I’m trying to illustrate that “falling in love” is something to evaluate, not something you should slavishly give yourself over to. Infatuation is a very pleasant, very real brain obsession, but it’s a dangerous and false god.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What if It's Not about Who You Marry, but Why?

“Marriage isn’t about being young together; it’s about growing old together, and bodies change as we get older. What draws most of us into marriage is rarely the ingredient that serves long-term happiness in marriage. Understanding this alone will help you make a wise choice.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What if It's Not about Who You Marry, but Why?

“Guys, on the other hand, are more inclined to experience romantic love with women they are attracted to physically, yet physical appearance is the thing most likely to change in a person’s”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What if It's Not about Who You Marry, but Why?

“In other words, women, if you simply follow your feelings, you are more likely to fall in love with a guy who will thrill you for twelve to eighteen months as a boyfriend and then frustrate you for five to six decades as a husband.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What if It's Not about Who You Marry, but Why?

“Notice the trend: most people marry on the basis of perceived happiness, but few remain very happy for very long. And yet, every year, hundreds of thousands of couples think they can be different, so they base their decision on the same premise: we “feel” something special, we seem to be happy together, we’re generally compatible, so let’s get married.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What if It's Not about Who You Marry, but Why?

“shall be added to you.” When husband and wife are committed in Christ as their mission, growing together in the Lord, supporting each other in their spiritual walks, raising children in the fear of the Lord, and loving each other out of reverence for God, joy abounds and even miracles can happen.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What if It's Not about Who You Marry, but Why?

“People who marry well aren’t lucky in love. They’re intentional in their path.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What If It's Not about Who You Marry, But Why?

“Infatuation fills your eyes with what you’re getting, but let the Bible fill your mind with what you’re committing to give.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What If It's Not about Who You Marry, But Why?

“Jesus’s teachings direct us to make a decision that will lead to righteousness—to seek someone who will inspire us toward godliness, who will confront us when we go astray, who will forgive us when we mess up, who can encourage us with wisdom when we are uncertain about how to proceed.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What If It's Not about Who You Marry, But Why?

“Men who are filled with the Spirit—they are alive to God, and God is active in them—and men who are full of wisdom. You won’t regret making a choice founded on that basis.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What If It's Not about Who You Marry, But Why?

“getting married won’t make you happy or an adult; getting married simply makes you … married.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What If It's Not about Who You Marry, But Why?

“but if someone’s character has no foundation, there’s nothing to build on.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What If It's Not about Who You Marry, But Why?

“I ache for the day when people make such wise marital choices that they can pray through where to live to make the most significant impact for Christ instead of praying that they could merely be able to exist in the same house without yelling and fighting.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What If It's Not about Who You Marry, But Why?

“Racism, prejudice, dishonesty, laziness, gluttony, materialism, selfishness—all these grow more unpleasant the longer you have to accommodate them. If you’re already tired of having to excuse your partner of one (or certainly several) of these, you’re going to have a tough time when it comes to marital satisfaction twenty years from now.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What If It's Not about Who You Marry, But Why?

“A therapist friend of mine has worked with a number of different women who were at one point in their lives centerfolds for popular men’s magazines. These women often had difficulty achieving sexual satisfaction. Though they seemed experienced in sexuality per se, they had almost no understanding of God-ordained sexual intimacy within marriage. As a result, there was a lot of spiritual and psychological healing that had to be accomplished in order for them to enter into a mutually satisfying relationship.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What If It's Not about Who You Marry, But Why?

“It’s far better to move somewhere on a trial basis as a single person to try out the option than to get married first and then see if you like it.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What If It's Not about Who You Marry, But Why?

“There is nothing morally superior about wanting to live on a farm, in a city apartment, or in a house in the suburbs.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What If It's Not about Who You Marry, But Why?

“If you haven’t talked about it to your partner, you have no business talking about it to someone else, unless it’s a particularly touchy issue and you’re seeking godly wisdom as to how to share it or broach the topic.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What If It's Not about Who You Marry, But Why?

“Abraham’s servant prayed for success: “O LORD, the God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today, and show lovingkindness to my master Abraham” (Gen. 24:12 NASB). This is the first time in Scripture that we read of someone asking God for specific guidance.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What If It's Not about Who You Marry, But Why?

“Rejecting the notion that God creates one person just for us doesn’t discount the reality that God can lead us toward someone and help us make a wise choice when we seek Him in prayer.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What If It's Not about Who You Marry, But Why?

“The Bible views us as recipients of God’s perfect love, already charged with an important life mission (seeking first the kingdom of God), and thus the decision to marry, though crucial, won’t define us. Nor will who we marry define us.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What If It's Not about Who You Marry, But Why?

“Perhaps you reject Plato’s soul-mate line of thinking but have developed a “Christian alternative,” something along the lines of finding the one person whom God created “just for you.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What If It's Not about Who You Marry, But Why?

“fleeting fun. This is the kind of love celebrated in most movies, novels, television programs, and songs. You’ve been conditioned to value it above all else and have been told that it’s the only “authentic” love.”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What If It's Not about Who You Marry, But Why?

“women,”
― Gary L. Thomas, The Sacred Search: What If It's Not about Who You Marry, But Why?