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Theme of the Week: Kiss and Make Up
Bryan Chapell
Friday, February 14, 2003
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Key Bible Verse: A wife is married to her husband as long as he lives (1 Corinthians 7:39). Bonus Reading:Matthew 19:3-9
Only weeks after Kathy and I were married, we had one of the most difficult arguments of our lives. I remember the hours of discussion, the mound of tear-drying tissues heaped on the bed, the lateness of the evening, and her final question: "If we have this kind of difference between us, is our marriage over?"
I then did a stupid thing. I laughed—not just a chuckle—a deep, long, sidesplitting roar. That our differences could be a threat to our marriage had never entered my mind. I loved Kathy more than I could express. I was looking forward to spending a lifetime with her. I'd promised God that I'd love her regardless of difficulty. The suggestion that an argument might undo us struck me as so off the wall and bizarre that I couldn't help but laugh.
God graciously used my laughing to reassure Kathy. Seeing that the idea of some disagreement separating us was so foreign to me gave her a sense of how secure she was in our relationship. And that made her more willing to bring up other matters that we needed to discuss, which, while not always pleasant, ultimately enabled us to make our marriage far stronger and sweeter.
—Bryan Chapell in Each for the Other
My Response: Can my wife rest absolutely secure in our relationship?
Thought to Apply: A successful marriage is one in which you fall in love many times, always to the same person.
—D. W. McLaughlin (writer)
Adapted from with Anne Weaver & Nina Harnish, Freedom Fences (Herald, 1999) by permission.
Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.
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Lord, when we are wrong make us willing to change, and when we are right, make us easy to live with. —Peter Marshall
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