3-20-22 Weather the Storm
Quote: “No marriage is all sunshine, but two people can share one umbrella and survive the storm together.”
I love a good rainstorm. I have been in many but my favorite ones have been in Guatemala. The rain comes out of no where and just downpours hard. The sound hitting the tin roof is so relaxing. And then it stops suddenly, just as quickly as it started, and oh the humidity that follows!
When I think of all the rainstorms my hubby Mark and I have survived over the past 2 decades, I can definitely say there have been some cozy, under the umbrella moments, where whatever it was we were going through, we somehow survived and it actually brought us closer together. But it hasn’t been all sunshine. There have been many storms that have come our way.
The cool thing we discovered after one such hellstorm – sorry, I mean rainstorm – is that we realized we simply cannot do this marriage thing without God’s help! And why? Because when we said our vows that hot summer day in July of 2005, we committed to having God be a part of our marriage. That he was going to be the one to help us weather the storms that would come our way. But no one I know quotes their vows daily. We had forgotten the pledges that we had made. The storm had reminded us that we were trying to do it without his help and we were failing miserably. We needed to do a reset – a “come to Jesus” moment if you will. We were not going to survive this season if we didn’t get our priorities right.
It needed to be God first. Then us. Then the kids.
You see, we’d gotten the order a little out of whack and we were paying the price for it. Misery, anger, bitterness, yelling, crying, and the silent treatment were the result of not going to God in prayer for each other during the stormy weather. We needed to surrender our thoughts of what we thought marriage was going to be like to what God wanted it to look like.
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 4:12, “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Usually we think of these verses as 3 friends, encouraging and strengthening each other. I believe this is very true, but I also think God may have a message for marriages with this verse. By myself I am not strong, but with my husband by my side I can take on anything! But wow – when you add God into the mix of it? Watch out! Three strands cannot be broken!
Together, the 3 of us can weather any storm. And we will not only come out even stronger after surviving it, we can then take our experiences and help others in their marriage! Both spouses plus God gives us the most ultimate strength and our marriage a fighting chance to survive and thrive.
Don’t just share the umbrella. Ask God to come in the middle and help hold the umbrella with you. You will never regret it.
