Human love is an imperfect reflection of God’s greater love. Healthy marriages learn to fight for each other instead of with each other. Selfishness Pushes Us Apart Song of Solomon 5:2–3 I slept, but my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking. “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is wet with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.” 3 I had put off my garment; how could I put it on? I had bathed my feet; how could I soil them? When “me” becomes more important than "we," distance is inevitable. Selfishness creates distance long before it creates disaster. What we neglect today can become what we regret tomorrow. Repentance Turns Us Around Song of Solomon 5:4–7 My beloved put his hand to the latch, and my heart was thrilled within me. 5 I arose to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the bolt. 6 I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone. My soul failed me when he spoke. I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer. 7 The watchmen found me as they went about in the city; they beat me, they bruised me, they took away my veil, those watchmen of the walls. Repentance begins when we stop looking through the window at our spouse and start looking in the mirror at ourselves. Reconciliation Brings Us Back Together Song of Solomon 5:8 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him I am sick with love. Song of Solomon 5:16 His mouth is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. Song of Solomon 6:4–5 You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners. 5 Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me Reconciliation begins when being restored becomes more important than being right. We learn to pursue reconciliation because we have been reconciled by Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:18–20 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.