Can You Choose the Wrong Husband or Wife? In this video, Jimmy Akin explores this question and explains how God wants us to use our gift of free will.
Transcript:
Um, I’ve discerned into marriage and proposed to my girlfriend. Problem is, I’m experiencing cold feet and severe stress with a chance I picked the wrong person. Told myself, just trust God. If He wanted me to be with someone else, He’d move my heart in another direction. But since many have tried to tell me God doesn’t have a particular individual planned out for anyone, i.e., a soulmate, not sure God will ever intervene. Should I be expecting help from God?
Okay, well, um, I would say that what people have told you—that God doesn’t have a single individual who’s like destined for you and you either get that person or you miss forever—I would say those people are right. This idea of a soulmate is not something that’s found in the Bible. And we see, um, people like the patriarch Abraham—he was originally married to Sarah, but after she passed on, he got married to a woman named Keturah. And as far as we know, they had a successful marriage. Moses had more than one wife too, one after the other. And so, um, it’s not like there’s this one and only person out there for you. You’ve got options.
And so I would say if, uh, you’re having cold feet, well, that’s understandable. I remember when I got married, it—you know, there was a certain moment when we were actually saying the vows, and we got up to the “I take you to be my spouse” part, and I’m starting to say that, and all of a sudden, I’m getting really weak in the knees. Um, and actually, I’m told if you watch videos of people, um, getting married, sometimes you’ll see one of the two parties just faint on the spot as they’re saying the vows, because you’ve got that adrenaline going with the fight-or-flight reflex. And what that does—when you have the fight-or-flight reflex—is it, um, will suck blood away from your head in order to enable you to run. And sucking the blood away from your head can cause you to faint.
Um, so that is something that, you know, one can experience. I’ve experienced that. I’ve been—I’ve had butterflies, uh, regarding, “Do I want to say these vows or not?” And in fact, um, I’ve been told that about a third of all marriage licenses that get taken out end up not getting used. So, like, a lot of people do get cold feet.
Um, whether and what to do in your situation—I would say divine revelation is always a gift. It is, and it is not to be presumed. So I think it’s fine for you to ask God to give you a sign. And it needs to be a notable sign, not just, “May the sun come up tomorrow.” It needs to be something really unexpected. And I would name the sign that you want, because otherwise, you leave anything strange that happens open to, “Oh, that’s the sign, that’s the sign!” Um, no. Name it. If you’re going to ask God for a sign, name the sign, and it needs to be something rare.
Um, so you can ask God for a sign to give you guidance one way or another on this question. But do not expect the sign. God may or may not choose to give it. And God’s not in the business of giving signs that often. So if it happens, great. But don’t expect it.
What do you do in the absence of God, um, giving you a sign? Well, you fall back on human reason. He gave you your gift of reason to guide you through this life, and He expects you to use it. So use your reason to look at the situation and say, “Is this person someone that would be good to be married to for the rest of my life, to hopefully raise a family with?”
Um, if you see major warning signs now, I would say listen to those warning signs, because people are on their best behavior when they’re trying to get married. When they start slacking off is after the vows have been said, and they don’t have to worry about, “Am I going to catch this person or not?” You’ve already been caught at that point. So people are on—it’s like a job interview. People are on their best behavior when they’re in the job interview. And so if you see danger signs now, then you should appropriately consider those.
On the other hand, you shouldn’t expect a perfect marriage where it’s going to be bliss every minute and you’re never going to—you’re never going to have frustrations or get mad at each other or things like that, because that’s not life. Um, even good marriages have difficulties that the partners have to go through. So don’t let a few difficulties scare you off. That’s just part of life. That’s going to happen whether you get married or not. So don’t be afraid of difficulties. But if you see major warning signs now, take them seriously.
Use your own intellect. And since your emotions are wrapped up in this, you’re not necessarily the best judge one way or the other, because your emotions, on the one hand, are pulling you to want to marry this person. But your fears are also pulling you to want to not marry this person. I would—I would talk to people who know you and know your prospective spouse, like maybe your parents or friends or things like that, and say, “What do you think?” Swear them to privacy, because you don’t want to undermine what, uh, you know, what your spouse is thinking. Um, and don’t go probing into, “Oh, maybe my fiancé has been having similar conversations.” Leave those things to the privacy of your fiancé, and keep your own privacy.
But, you know, think about talking to people who know both of you and say, “I just wanted to get your perspective on this. What do you think?” without trying to prejudice it one way or another, and get their ideas as well. Because they have—they’re coming from a position that’s less emotionally invested, and therefore, um, they may have some additional insights or perspective that you would otherwise miss.
How’s that for marriage advice, Matt?
Yeah, yeah, um, yeah, great stuff. Um, I appreciate that. I mean, going back to the—the idea of a soulmate, I just have a hard time believing God doesn’t care who I marry, because He cares what—oh—which occupation you pick. So why wouldn’t He help you out, or why wouldn’t He have a preference with a arguably more important decision in marriage?
Who—who says God cares what occupation you pick? You could be a doctor, you could be an engineer, you could be a lawyer, you could flip burgers—you could do any number of things to glorify God by doing work in the world. Now, He may have given you certain talents and opportunities that make it logical for you to pursue a particular career, but that’s not the only one. You could do lots of things. People change careers throughout their lives.
I kind of compare it to buying bread in the store. You know, there’s—at least here in America—there’s a bunch of different kinds of bread, and they all work. And so you’ve got a choice. It’s not like God really wants you to pick the Wonder Bread rather than the Oroweat bread, you know? God doesn’t really care about that. Um, God wants you to have adequate food. But what food you buy is up to you. And so, um, what career you pick to glorify God is up to you. He’s got a bunch of options for you.
Similarly, who you marry and who you glorify God by being married to—that’s up to you. He’s got a bunch of options that are just fine. And so, just like there’s not one person you’ve got to marry, or one career you’ve got to identify, or one job you’ve got to get, or one loaf of bread above all other loaves of bread that you’ve got to buy—it just doesn’t work that way. God gives us options, and we glorify Him by using our free will among those options.
With that, the, uh, Jimmy Marriage Advice Line will shut down right there. So, thank you so much for your call. Uh, we’re going to go to our break, and when we come back, we’ll continue more with “Ask Me Anything with Jimmy Akin.”