Special Feature
While it has been said that familiarity breeds contempt, sometimes familiarity breeds complacency. Does your marriage feel like it is on autopilot, and no one is watching the flight control system? Marriage can be smooth until the turbulent winds of life come. Here are three strategies to keep your marriage flying safely through the inescapable bumpy times.
1. Keep Dreaming. Do you remember the early days of your relationship when you were carefree and full of dreams and possibilities? Maybe you imagined traveling, starting a business, or having a house and three children. When left unattended, a marriage can slowly drift into complacency. Before long, the couple loses their sense of adventure and relational curiosity. The desire to know each other better fades. This scenario does not have to be your reality. With godly contentment as your guiding principle (Philippians 4:11), work to strengthen your marital bond. Travel to the mountains or beach and discuss the next chapter of your marriage. Dream big together. Put a date on it. Implement it.
2. Keep Depending. Whether you have been married fifty years or fifty days, you need each other. God designed it that way. Genesis 2:18 says, “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.’” In a biblical marriage, God joins a man and a woman who are custom fit for each other. Like inhaling and exhaling, their oneness is inevitable. The Bible declares, “…they shall become one” (Genesis 2:24b). In what ways can your strengths benefit your spouse’s weaknesses? Celebrate your dependence upon each other, knowing “two are better than one” (Ecclesiastes 4:9).
3. Keep Romancing. Romance is more than sexual intimacy. In his book Love Is Something You Do, John Bisagno writes, “Real love goes far deeper than movie-land romances and teenage crushes. It gives, it bleeds, it hurts, it sacrifices, it cares, it dies.” Did you know, at your wedding, you promised God you would faithfully practice His brand of romantic love? God’s love pursues when it wants to retreat, forgives when it wants to get even, and embraces when it wants to release.
Remember to dream, depend, romance each other, and never take each other for granted. Keep your eyes on the controls, and your marriage will soar!
-Alonza Jones
President and Co-Founder, Biblical Marriage Institute
Follow @biblicalmarriageinstitute
