Paul, states in his letter to the church at Corinth that if they do choose to marry they have not sinned but they will face trouble. No newly engaged person wants to read this! But those of us who have been married for more than 5 minutes know how much truth there is in Paul’s statement.
Why? Why do we face trouble? SELFISHNESS. We want what we want, when we want it and when we don’t get it we tend to react terribly, which usually results in our first real fight. The typical disagreement for most newlyweds will go sideways. The husband shuts down and the wife is either in tears and/or trying to coax her husband to talk. This intensity from the wife will further distance her husband and will usually result in his complete emotional retreat, if not physical retreat. Neither speaks to the other for a few hours or days and it gets swept under the rug. That is, until the next time when the subject gets brought up again or a new disagreement emerges. Unfortunately, a pattern has already been established and both spouses enter this next conflict in full defensive mode.
T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Marriage is the perfect microcosm to teach us what it means to love your neighbor as yourself, turn the other cheek, if asked for your coat, give them your shirt, if asked to go 1 mile, go 2 miles. Ugh, what?!? You don’t understand! My wife is so disrespectful, demanding, and hateful or my husband is so harsh, unloving and unkind to me. How can you expect me to do anything other than let them know how I feel? How much of this am I supposed to take? What about me? What about my feelings? If I give in they’ll not only go two miles, they’ll go 40!
Sound familiar? Do you really want to stop having this much trouble in your marriage? How much do you really want to understand how God sees marriage? If you truly want to know, and want to change your marriage, click on the Contact tab. Make an appointment and let’s explore together what God says, the one who created marriage, and let us help you learn to love and live in a dying sort of way.
Freed to Live 