Wed Inspiration

Morning Inspiration with Pastor Merritt

The most important part of a marriage in its beginning stages is that God is the One who ties the knot. God is the One who should bring the man and the woman together and both of them should have God as the number one priority in their life.

Even the most secure knot in the world cannot hold together a rope that is frayed. When a rope becomes frayed, the strands become worn and untangled. When that happens the rope eventually will break. The number one cause of fraying in a rope is friction.

I’ll tell you what I’ve learned about friction in my own marriage. Many times it is not caused by what you do. It is just caused by what you are.

One of the biggest things that can cause conflict in our marriage, believe it or not, is grocery shopping. I don’t mean Teresa’s grocery shopping. I mean mine. One of the things I like to do, believe it or not, is grocery shop, because it is one of the few things I feel like I bring to the marriage. Yet, it always winds up the same way. She will make a list, give it to me, and then I will wind up calling her once every 30 seconds to ask her questions like, “What aisle do I find peanut butter on?” or “The dog food, do you want a 10lb bag or 20lb bag?” or “You said Smuckers peanut butter, but did you mean crunchy, smooth, or natural?” I am a founding member of the CLUELESS HUSBAND SHOPPING SQUAD.

I can relate to the guy whose wife told him she wanted to bake a cake and he begged her to let him go to the grocery store and get the ingredients. He came home with one carton of eggs, two bags of flour, three boxes of cake mix, four sacks of sugar and five cans of cake frosting. His wife looked up to the ceiling and said, “I never should have numbered the list.”

The truth of the matter is most all of us have conflict in our marriage - just over different things. For many couples it is money. For other couples it is sex. For still other couples it is sports. For a lot of couples it is communication - either too much of it or not enough of it.

The issue is not whether or not your marriage is going to have conflict. The issue is how are you going to respond to it and how are you going to resolve it?