Synchronized Flailing
Theme of the Week: Marriage Is a Team Sport
Sunday, February 8, 2009
 1 of 1
Who Said It … Dave Meurer
Dave Meurer is a humor writer whose columns have run in New Man, HomeLife, and Focus on the Family. Some of his book titles: Mistake It Like a Man; If You Want Breakfast in Bed, Sleep in the Kitchen; You Can Childproof Your Home, but They'll Still Get In; and Hair-Raising Joys of Raising Boys. His two boys are now grown. And Dave does have a serious job in the office of Congressman Wally Herger in Redding, California. What He Said … Synchronized Flailing
My wife, Dale, and I stood on the lakeshore with eight other couples, as a park ranger instructed us on maneuvering a two-person kayak. He told us how to hold the oar and synchronize our movements. My job would be to match my strokes to Dale's, varying my rhythm only to steer.
"Are any of you married to the person who'll be with you?" the ranger asked. Several of us raised our hands. "We'll have marriage counseling when we get back to shore," he said. We all laughed. How hard could this be?
We put our kayaks into the lake and, with our guide leading, began paddling in a relatively synchronized manner. But one boat was a spectacle of flailing oars and splashing water. The husband looked like he was trying to set a world speed record. He was paying zero attention to the rhythm of his wife's strokes, so their paddles crashed together, occasionally ramming other boats.
Married partners must learn to row at the same pace and in the same direction.
Adapted from Good Spousekeeping (Cook, 2004) by permission.
Copyright © 2009 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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Help me, Lord, to sacrificially love my wife in practical ways that will bind us tightly together.
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