One topic that keeps being brought to the surface is that marriages are a constant work in progress. I would honestly say that Kyle and I are experiencing a blissful and peaceful point in our marriage right now. We have both been blessed lately and told each other how much we appreciate the fun times that we are once again having with each other. We both feel that this has afforded us the opportunity to lift some of our friends up that have asked for prayer. This has also allowed me to be brutally honest with a few friends/family members in regards to their marriages. No one is perfect and sometimes you have to give a little to make the relationship work. I have also had to say hard things like, "if it was broke before you got married why did you think getting married would fix it." Do I believe that people can change? Yes, of course I do. My dad is the perfect visual example of change; however, I don't think that marriage will make someone a better man or woman than they were before marriage.
I am struggling as I watch some men and women in my life treat their spouses with disrespect, anger, and general meanness. It breaks my heart that they can't depend on their spouse to be the man or woman that they are called to be. Instead of spending countless hours worrying about them I am spending countless hours praying and listening to what God speaks about these problems. I am using this opportunity to count my blessings and look at what God is capable of bringing us out of. I don't have the perfect marriage; I have a work in progress. I am learning to love those that hurt my friends and family. I am learning to pray for those that make me angry. I am still a work in progress.
1st Corinthians 13: 1-13
New International Version (NIV)
13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When
I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I
reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
