Have You Given Up On Your Marriage?

If you are one who's thinking about giving up on your marriage my prayer is that you will think again. We took a vowel before God to take this man for better or for worse, that may not mean much to us at times but it means a lot to God.(Eph.5:22-33) I'm aware of many the challenges that marriage presents, but I ask you to weigh the good and the bad. If your good outweighs the bad I'd like to suggest that you hang in there. If you're husband is trying yet still falling short perhaps he's lost, rarely will a man admit this; so more than likely he will shut down and it appears as though he doesn't care. Let me pause for a moment- I'm not talking about marriages where the man isn't supporting his wife/family, he's is abusive or being unfaithful! I'm reaching out to the ones who are experiencing some turbulence in other areas. If people we're to be more transparent I think a lot of marriages would survive. Many of us go into our marriages painting this perfect picture of how we're expecting it to be, or we look on at other marriages who appear to have it all together; no wonder we're ready to let go when things get uncomfortable. Look at all the older couples who've been together for thirty, forty, and fifty years plus, you think they haven't wanted to end things at one time or another? I'm sure some of them certainly have given it some thought. I wish more of the couples (with healthy marriages)who've managed to stay together would reach out to the ones who are having trouble and encourage them. It's so sad how we will do anything to save face, I'm not saying just go around discussing your personal business to everybody but if your aware of a situation and you've been down the same road you see them headed for it would be nice to at least offer some advise. My husband and I have definitely had our of hurdles to overcome and I'm sure there will be more, but divorce just isn't an option. And ladies don't you dare worry about what people will say! There's always going to be someone with something to say, just how important is their opinion to you? It shouldn't be more valuable than God's. We ALL have issues in life, they all may not be the same but EVERY BODY'S has some! If you take the time to pray, allow God to speak to your heart and put in some work I believe we see things differently. When we're looking from a place of frustration and resentment it impairs our vision limiting our ability to see the entire view. When we take away the emotions we become rational then we're able to have sound judgment. There will be times in every marriage when it's great, not so great and then you may find yourself somewhere in between-we have to keep this in mind so that we won't be so quick to give up. We're only going to get out of it what we put into it and there has to be two willing participants. We shouldn't stop dating and making ourselves appealing to one another because it will get stale and boring. I said all of this to say-we must to be truly committed to our marriage, being honest with each other, willing to compromise, being supportive, and most of all forgiving each other. Without God's grace I don't think we're able to do these and all the other things that it takes to stay together.