Quite liberating

Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina contains one of the most provocative and insightful opening lines in literature (IMHO): “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”. This means that there are just a few distinguishable and necessary common attributes of healthy and happy family relationships, but a myriad of ways to make them unhappy. According to Wikipedia this is called “The Anna Karenina Principle”. Who knew?

Although this “principle” may seem rigid, restrictive, and/or anachronistic to some, it’s actually quite liberating. Just a few simple—though not easy—things you have to get right in order to be happy. This, of course, extends to marriage, the family’s foundation.

In a passage from Ephesians on marriage that to many today seems rigid, restrictive, and anachronistic, this week’s Epistle lays out just a few simple—though not easy—common attributes of happy Christian marriages. And they’re quite liberating.