Marriage will only ever be what you put into it

I don’t know what your marriage looks like, but the reality is that there will be a huge number of people who hear this who are all set to throw in the towel – half of all marriages in this country end in divorce. The state of the other half of marriages will look like patch-work quilt … some great, some not so great.

Communicator & author, Walt Larimore says that when he and his wife buy a wedding present for friends, that they give them a box … a very beautiful, but empty box. In it, they put these words:
“Most people who get married believe a myth – they believe that marriage is a beautiful box filled with all the things they’ve longed for - they believe that it is filled with companionship, sexual fulfilment, intimacy and friendship. The truth is that marriage at the start is an empty box, you must put something in before you can take something out.

There’s no love in marriage … love is in people, and people put it in marriage.

There’s no romance in marriage, people have to infuse it intro their marriages. A couple must learn this art … they must form the habit of giving; the habit of loving, the habit of serving.
Its up to you as a couple to keep your box full. If you take out more than you put in, your box will be empty. I’m not asking you to ‘feel’ like doing this. Real love doesn’t always ‘feel’ like loving. But it always loves, because real love is love in action not in word. It’s a decision of the will to love, even when love is tough. And when you chose to love, the feelings follow.”

Today, we have a choice – we can choose to allow anger, resentment and bitterness to rip our marriage apart, or we can make a new declaration of love and commitment. The choice is yours.

Tim Sisarich, Executive Director Focus on the Family NZ as heard on Scrubcutters , Newstalk ZB