Marriage Challenge #2

Saturday, January 13, 2018


Everyone has heard the phrase "Love Conquers All". Most people probably think the adage originated from the Bible, from the love verses in Corinthians 13. Love is patient. Love is kind. The phrase actually originated shortly before the start of the first millennium, the Roman poet Virgil wrote "love conquers all things, let us too surrender to love". Marriage challenge #2 centers around the words we may have said and certainly all have heard "It'll all work out. We will live on love!" Until.  You find yourself married, things aren't working out and it's time to divide and conquer.
I remember Marriage Challenge #1 on being unified and we're still working on that. Now I'm gonna say divide and conquer? Well, yes. In my marriage, I had to figure out when love does conquer all and the reality of .... 
  • If you sit around all day on a snowy Monday making googly eyes at each other, you may feel all warm inside but your outside is probably freezing because you can't pay the electric bill. Reality is love will not conquer the bills. 
  • Your spouse may agree with you most of the time but rest assured, love will not conquer all your disagreements. Expect arguments.
  • Assign work during the engagement..Love will not conquer the dirty dishes, the tall grass, the laundry or taking off the trash.
So what do you do? You divide the bills. Pay some this week and some next week. Conquered. You discuss your disagreements like civilized married people. You may agree to disagree. Divided, yet conquered. Women wash the dishes and laundry. Men mow the grass and take out the trash. Or vice versa. Divided and conquered.

I could go on for days with examples of things in marriage that love will not conquer or will almost conquer but not quite. There are tons of them. Please share some examples of your own with me. It may help some of us old married folk. Newly engaged, newly married and other delusional types let go of the mindset that you will live off love. You will not! I don't mean to be a bubble buster, well, maybe a little but #truthisreality. Don't get too discouraged. There's always hope. There is a situation when love conquers all and improves everything in a marriage.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The kind of love that conquers all is the love God has towards us. There is nothing we can do that his love can't conquer if we believe in him. As much as I want my marriage to thrive in a Godly fashion, my husband can never love me, nor I him, the way God loves each of us. God's perfect love he shares with us through Jesus is amazingly overwhelming! His love for us...
  • pays the bills, we are debt-free
  • settles all disagreements between our soul and our savior, and
  • never requires work
Romans 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

Unified and conquering,
Tammy

Comments

  1. Relationships are tricky especially early on. Two people with different backgrounds and expectations come together. Each has an ideal in mind of how things will go then one wakes up in a bad mood or one comes home from a hard day in a bad mood, suddenly it’s not what they envisioned. I listened to a radio message one day topic “Love is an action verb”. Premise being building a good relationship takes actions. Pretty poetry, pretty words, pretty ideas need some substance. Many times people’s relationship dies because when push comes to shove (reality) they react and their reaction is not loving, supportive, or committed.

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    1. Totally agree Sharon! Lasting relationships are hard work. Work being the "love" action verb. Marriage is probably not the best option for quitters or complainers. :)

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