Before you get the wrong idea, I'm simply quoting the wife of a NFL football player, who was recently interviewed for an article written for a very well-known national news outlet.
When I saw the headline, I have to admit that I was curious for a variety of reasons. Number one: why is this national news? Number two: why is she talking to her girlfriends, let alone the whole country, about problems in her marriage? Number three: what does her husband think about her telling the entire nation that after six years of marriage and three kids, they are currently in a slump?
I stopped reading after the first three paragraphs, completely irritated that she would share her business in a leading story.
This isn't something new. There are really two words I could use to describe "the slump" that she's talking about: life and work.
That may be too broad so I'll narrow it down. We all go through slumps in our marriage. That's life. Life is known for having ups and downs, highs and lows, moutains and valleys...whatever you want to call it. Why would we think that every day will be peaches and cream in our marraiges?
Second of all, marriage takes work. There are some days I look in the mirror and say to the image looking back at me: I really don't like you. On days like that, I'm sure I'm not the only one who doesn't like me either.
Yet marriage isn't all about emotion and what we feel. It's about consciously making an effort to truly love the men we've married...and by truly love, I mean doing what is best for the object loved. If I don't feel like loving and giving my 100% then why should I be surprised when it seems we're in a "slump?"
That's why the Lord penned in Titus 2:4 That they [the aged women from verse 3] may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children...Why would we have to be taught to love our husbands? Shouldn't that come naturally? Sometimes it doesn't, and the Lord knew that we wives would need a reminder about what our jobs are.
Most people get into marriage believeing a myth that a marriage is a beautifiul box
full of all the things they have longed for: companionship, intimacy, friendship, etc.
The truth is that marriage, at the start, is an empty box.
You must put something in before you can take anything out.
There is no love in marriage. Love is in people. And people put love in marriage.
There is no romance in marriage. You have to infuse it into your marriage.
A couple must learn the art and form the habit of
giving, loving, serving, praising, of keeping the box full.
If you take out more than you put in, the box will be empty.
All of this spells w-o-r-k.
If you feel yourself in a low point, maybe it's time to take a step back and reasses what's going on in your relationship. Are you putting in or have you taken out too much?
The Lord knew there would be "slump" days. After all, that's life. But it's how we deal with them that will determine the outcome....wihout needing a headline in the news.
Simply Working,
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