Healthy Living

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Patience, Unconditional Love, Courage
(c)
by

Stephen A. Peterson


“Oh, brother!” I groaned. It seemed that nothing I did was going right as my wife, Maura, and I were driving down Interstate 70 to get to Indianapolis, Indiana to participate in the funeral of my grandmother. Blinding rain showers in Missouri and Illinois delayed our arrival to such an extent we were three hours behind schedule and would not arrive in Indianapolis until the next day. We decided to call my mother to tell her of our decision and what caused us to be so late. We planned this whole trip to the minute. Maura lamented, “Now we’re probably going to be really late for your grandmother’s funeral.”

We glumly checked into a little motel just east of Terre Haute, Indiana in a town we had never heard of. Hungry, we sat down to eat something before we turned in. We also tried to cheer ourselves up after a grueling drive from the middle of Oklahoma to western Indiana since 4:00 AM. We were just across the Wabash River. There was not much to see on a dark moonless night. However, a soft springtime like breeze carried a floral scent of promise from this little Hoosier town.

As we made our way to our room, we unexpectedly ran into younger couple arguing. A sense of unexpected, shame and embarrassment was on their faces. “Oh, let’s go!” said the young wife. “We’re so sorry! I bet you guys have never had the kinds of problems we do.”

We went on explain that every relationship has it challenges, strains, and difficult periods—they are no exception. We informed them that God can strengthen any difficulty when there is a spirit of forgiveness/reconciliation. We further explained through the years we have had our share of disagreements as well. Disagreements and arguments can be healthy expressions of a lack of husband-wife interaction, a need to re-evaluate personal point-of-view, reshuffling of husband-wife roles and responsibilities, misunderstanding on the part of one or both persons. Regardless, they, with God’s help will be able to deal with any marital problem that comes up in their marriage with patience, unconditional love and courage. They can make their marriage work but it will take both looking for each other’s strengths, talents and abilities rather than faults, wrongdoings and bad habits although everyone has them. Within minutes after our conversation with the young couple, they left seemingly embarrassed still but, it seemed, with a changed attitude towards each other.

After a good night sleep, we met the young couple who thanked us for what they stated was “good advice”. They went on their way and we on to Indianapolis. Maybe the young couple was on their road to a successful and God filled marriage.

The Lord wants us to be happy within our marital relationships. So let us pray, not for what seems to us, but for all the things that are possible for God who is the author of marriage.

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