Potholes

Oh, how I love this man God has given me for so many years of my life.  But that doesn't keep us from hitting potholes in our marriage.  We've experienced some bumps together this week, and I'm so grateful for a husband who believes our marriage is worth fighting for and that the potholes are effective instruments of change.  Our journey of resurfacing the marriage road reminded me of some notes I had taken when I read "What Did You Expect?" a few months ago:

"There are three primary tools of difference that God uses in marriage to reveal our hearts.  The first tool...is the difference in personal hardwiring that the Creator has formed in each of us.  Second is the difference in viewpoints, instincts, and tastes that have been formed in us through the experiential, cultural, and relational influences that we have lived in which have formed the way we see the world and respond to it.  And, finally there are the differences in personal sin and weakness and in our growth in grace.  We are not all in the same place on our journey to Christlike maturity.

It is so important to remember that these three things are not to be viewed as he potholes to be avoided on the road to a good marriage but as effective instruments of change in the hands of a loving, wise, and faithful Redeemer.  He is worth trusting, even in those moments when it is hard for us to trust one another, because, no matter what the motives of our spouse might be, our Savior is up to something good."