Microwaved Marriages

Have you noticed how FAST our world is?  You are probably reading this on a high-speed Internet connection with a 4G phone sitting near you.  We buy and drive cars that go faster than you would ever have need of.  On-demand movies, fast food, and instant messenger are all available to us.  We don't even have to go into Applebee's any more...they bring it to your car!!  We have microwaves in our kitchens so that we can pop corn and reheat frozen burritos (cuz they taste so good...blah!)  Remote controls for the TV (Josh remembers when they had cords...crazy!!) keep us on the couch but our cell phones keep us connected.  We multitask with Bluetooths in our ears while we Skype with our "people."  We have so much at our fingertips to help us do more faster and with greater ease.  But, does doing things faster and easier make them better?

I think by being able to do things faster and easier, eventually make us lazy...er.

Example:  We love to grill outside.  Our kids love it; we love it.  I (Josh) enjoy learning to cook new things and in new ways.  I am now 33 but when I was younger this was not the case.  I wanted to get the food done ASAP which resulted in lots of charred and, yet undercooked, food.  As I matured I learned that its not that bad to wait for the meat to get done at a proper speed.  It is worth it when the meal is served.

We do this very thing to our marriages.

We seem to think that we can make a great marriage by our good looks, by reading a couple of books and implementing a few ideas, or reading a blog that talks about marriage.  Marriage and standing for yours is not that easy.  You can't pop your marriage in the microwave and have it ready in 30 seconds with all of your problems fixed!  You might be able to do it with a potato but even a potato tastes better over a fire than in microwave!

All of us want your marital issues fixed and resolved but for us to think that it happens in a moment is ludicrous!  Those problems did not crop up overnight...they won't go away overnight.  We need to learn the benefits of waiting and working for what we want.

This could very well be where we have gone wrong.  We don't want to wait but we also don't want to work.  Real cooking (you know...with fire or a stove or oven) has been replaced with microwave dinners.  We drive into automated car washes, so we have done away with a soap and a bucket.  We bring in cleaning services to clean our homes so we don't have to do the work.  We shop at grocery stores because we don't want to grow our own food.

We do this very thing to our marriages.

We don't want to work at our marriage.  We want to pull our dirty marriage into automated marriage restorers and have them come out sparkling clean.  We want Dr. Phil or Oprah or some one else to come in, tell us what's wrong, and then what we need to do in order to fix it.  But, if the remedy is too hard....pull the divorce card and be done with it.  Find a new relationship to start because that will fix EVERYTHING (said dripping with sarcasm)!!

How bad do you really want your marriage to work out for the best?  God is for your marriage being restored to wholeness; do you?  If you say "yes", be ready to wait and work.  There are no microwave marriages.  It is going to be hard and it will seem like you will never obtain the marriage that you want.  But, don't give up!!  Just because it is slow in coming doesn't mean that it's NOT!!  C'mon...we should know God well enough by now.  Remember all the Bible stories about Moses, David, Joseph, Daniel and others?  God always came through, didn't He?  Never on the timetable of those in the thick of it but, nevertheless, He STILL came through!!

I am reminded of a Scripture in Malachi 3:10 where God is talking.  He is telling the people to bring all the tithes into the storehouse and He would pour out a blessing so great that there wouldn't be room to receive it.  The part that I am reminded of is at the end of that verse where God says, "Try it!  Test me and see if I won't do it!"  God is for the marriage covenant; He is for Your marriage covenant!  Try it...test Him...see if He won't do it!  However, that means that you have to wait until His timing comes around.  Might seem like a long wait but you will never know if you don't wait!!

So, quit popping your marriage in the microwave and hoping to have all the issues resolved when you wake up in the morning.  Start working at your marriage and waiting on God.

Lamentations 3:25

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,
      To the soul who seeks Him.


 

Josh and Serena