National Marriage Week is this week - February 7th to 14th - and celebrates the gift and the blessing of marriage.

In a culture where the sacredness of marriage is constantly under fire, it's important to remember that God is the Creator of marriage - in fact, it's the very first institution He created (Genesis 2:23-24). God designed marriage for a wonderful purpose, and throughout Scripture lays out His plan for marriage as a lifelong union that is to be an ongoing demonstration of the sacrificial love that Christ showed His church.

In Matthew 19:6, Jesus underscored the importance and sacredness of lifelong marriage: "So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate."

When a husband and wife institute God's principles of marriage in the Bible and keep Christ at the center of their relationship, a solid, joyful, healthy marriage results. In honor of National Marriage Week, here are seven verses to help encourage and strengthen you and your spouse in your marriage.

Psalm 85:10 - Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 - Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Ephesians 5:22-33 - Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ...

Ephesians 5:25 - Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

Hebrews 13:1-25 - Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." ...

1 John 4:7 - Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Isaiah 62:5 - For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.