{"id":41071,"date":"2015-10-01T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ikea-furniture-just-dont-do-it\/"},"modified":"2015-10-01T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T15:00:00","slug":"ikea-furniture-just-dont-do-it","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ikea-furniture-just-dont-do-it\/","title":{"rendered":"IKEA Furniture\u2014Just Don&#8217;t Do It!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&quot;If you have assembled a piece of Ikea furniture with a partner, then you have probably argued with a partner about assembling a piece of Ikea furniture.&quot; Every step in the process of buying a piece of Ikea furniture leads to the ultimate argument of putting it together. The instructions are usually the biggest stressor because &quot;Ikea&#39;s deceptively simple assembly manuals give users the (often incorrect) impression that the project can be accomplished without much time or effort.&quot; Yet, when we can&#39;t accomplish what the cartoon figure can &quot;our expectations are dashed, and our egos take a hit.&quot; As Quartz so aptly describes, &quot;The showroom made you feel inadequate, you&#39;re subconsciously battling your partner for power, and you&#39;re embarrassed that it&#39;s taken the better part of a Saturday for two educated adults to build a chest of drawers.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>But how do you keep this from being a battle? Well the psychologists offer three great tips: assign responsibility (communication and feedback are key), take a break (step away from a charged situation), and just don&#39;t do it (As Scott Stanley, psychology professor at the University of Denver says, &quot;There are some couples who have a fabulous life together who just recognize they should not be building things from Ikea together.&quot;).<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"><em><strong>Possible Preaching Angle: <\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n\n<p><em>Sometimes when it comes to conflict in a marriage or a church, here&#39;s the best advice: just don&#39;t do it&mdash;or at least try to avoid these nasty argument triggers.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"> <\/h2>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3435,3785,4425,4546,4821],"tax_ctp_topics":[390,395],"class_list":["post-41071","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-arguments","tax_ctp_tags-disagreements","tax_ctp_tags-marriage","tax_ctp_tags-news-that-illustrates","tax_ctp_tags-responsibility"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>IKEA Furniture\u2014Just Don&#039;t Do It! - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ikea-furniture-just-dont-do-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"IKEA Furniture\u2014Just Don&#039;t Do It! - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&quot;If you have assembled a piece of Ikea furniture with a partner, then you have probably argued with a partner about assembling a piece of Ikea furniture.&quot; Every step in the process of buying a piece of Ikea furniture leads to the ultimate argument of putting it together. 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