Marriage Journey

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness” (Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad). If you get out of your own world to interact with others, you’ll find good people everywhere – and if in some place you encounter a society with a load of bad folks, you’ll have more appreciation for why they are the way they are.

But, as James Michener contends, “if you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and avoid the people, you might better stay home.” If you make a trip but travel in a protective shell that eliminates interaction with the surroundings and the other people, you gain nothing.

Your marriage is a journey. Your traveling companion is a different sex, has a different background, might be from a different race, responds in different ways, and makes different choices. As you travel with your spouse, your prejudices, bigotry, and narrowmindness are likely to die. You’ll discover that your spouse, though different from you in many ways, is quite the creation of God. If, however, your marriage journey is a trip on which you have refused to appreciate, learn about, and rejoice in the experiences; you would have been better off staying home – in your first home.

You’ve made the vows and part of them probably sounded something like, “I promise to love, honor, and cherish.” The vows probably did not end with “as long as you are not too different from me.” Discover the value of your differences; and where you struggle to see the value, gain some sympathetic understanding of why your spouse is the way he or she is.

Get out of your tank, husbands, walk this trip side-by-side with your wife. Travel in his world for a while, wives. Discover a man’s world walking next to your man!

What preconceived notion of marriage or the opposite sex has been destroyed for the good because of your marriage journey?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.