Marriage Actually - An honest look at marriage

The Days When She Carries Me

by Bald Man on February 27th, 2008

Yesterday, up until about 4:15 or so, the worst part of my day had been when I drove away from the Taco Bell drive through having forgotten my change. I was out a little less than $3… no biggie. Then came some bad news at work, and my day collapsed. In the big picture, it isn’t the end of the world by any means, but it’s still something that left me feeling pretty crummy at the time. And for the rest of the evening. And still today I’m feeling a bit “bleh” over it.

Kerri to my rescue! It is amazing what the support and encouragement of a spouse can do for you. In those moments when you can scarcely believe in yourself, to have someone propping you up and cheering you one is unspeakably wonderful. I hope that each of your marriages are characterized by such a relationship.

Too often, however, the intimacy of marriage can distort our perspective of our spouse. We are led to focus on his or her imperfections. We become our spouse’s biggest critic. While there is a certainly place for speaking honestly to our spouse about his or her faults and for challenging him or her to grow, we cannot forget to be our spouse’s biggest source of encouragement.

Just because it is important doesn’t mean it is easy. Life doesn’t always lead us naturally into a proper balance. The gentle ebb and flow of the tides is the close cousin of the riptide that pulls a person under and carries him far out to sea. There are times in our marriage when we must fight that riptide that wants to carry us further out into the sea of negativity and unceasing criticism. We must swim strongly back to shore. And once there we must plant our feet in the sand and carry our weary spouse until such a time as they are once again able to walk with us in life.

image

Share This

POSTED IN: Encouragement, Pontification, Trials & Tests