The authors talk about having "goals" for your marriage. This entire idea struck me as odd ... so I wondered what the "goals" of my marriage is? To live together for a few decades? To not divorce? We had never discussed the concept of having goals in our marriage.
The authors told a story of driving from LA to Houston for an important trip. Along the way they got a flat tire and had to stop and change it. This delay slowed the trip down, but did not end the trip. No one would consider turning around or abandoning the trip because of a flat tire. Just about any traveler would simply fix the problem and continue along the journey. Why? Because the goal is getting to Houston. Not half-way to Houston.
Just like a road trip, our marriages will suffer delays, setbacks, obstacles. Like a road trip, we should expect these complications, fix them, and move on towards the goal. I love this analogy!
But, I am still confused. What is the "goal" of a marriage? I have thought about this a lot over the last few days and have come up with a few for my marriage (I have not had a chance to discuss these with Robby, so hopefully he will agree!):
1. Raising our children to be genuine Christians with a love for God.
2. Raising our children to be self-sufficient, mature adults.
3. Maintaining our health and wellness so that we can enjoy all of our years.
4. Making life-long fiscally sound decisions.
5. Serving God individually and as a couple.
6. Growing in the Lord individually and as a couple.
Are my goals too vague? How can I set a goal for the next few decades? What if my life situation changes dramatically? How can I plan when I have no idea how much time I have left? What about you? What goals do you have for your marriage? Besides just surviving? Can you think of any others?
1 comment:
Those sound good, and as far as how much time we have left, or if our life will change dramatically, we can't know that, but I believe having goals is a good thing as long as we're letting God drive. The ones we've talked about specifically are #1 raising our children to love and honor the Lord, and #2 to encourage those in our sphere of influence by setting the best example we can of what a marriage can & should look like. Do we do that yet? Not like we hope to, but that's a goal we can strive for, and when we're irked at each other, we can think, "Is this glorifying God, and are we living out a Christ-centered marriage right now?" I think it helps keep it all in perspective, thinking what kind of example we're setting.
Sorry--this turned out to be nearly a blog post in itself!
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