An elderly lady tottered into a lawyer’s office and asked for help in arranging a divorce. The lawyer simply could not believe what he had heard. “Tell me,” he said, “How old are you?
“Eighty-four,” she said. “And my husband is eighty-seven.”
“How long have you been married?”
“Almost sixty-two years.”
The lawyer slapped his forehead. “Married sixty-two years? Why do you want a divorce now?”
“Because,” she said, “Enough is enough!”
She had promised to marry “for better or for worse,” and it took 62 years for the worse to become unbearable. Every marriage can profit from this version of the golden rule, “Do unto one another as you would one month before marriage.” The apostle Paul puts it this way, ”Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice; and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:13).
The thing we must not forget is that the majority of marriages succeed. It is when both bride and groom view marriage as a short-term option rather than as a long-term contract that they are most likely to get a divorce. In this eventuality, love is the quest, marriage is the conquest, and divorce is the inquest.
Absolutely no marriage is immune to the possibility of having problems. There will throughout life be good days and bad days. There will be mountain peaks and deep valleys. Wise are the couples who expect and are prepared for those tough times. There may be difficult times financially, disagreements, hard decisions to make, illness or death, or countless other bumps in the road to endure.
Marriages are often wrecked by such character failures as dishonesty, unfaithfulness, alcohol, selfishness, and the list goes on and on. When problems are not faced openly and honestly, there is a strong likelihood that the marriage will become progressively worse until it becomes almost unbearable.
This is what happened in the marriage of an Ohio woman who told a friend that she had a “glow-worm” marriage. When asked what she meant, she replied, “The glow has gone, but the worm remains.” The scene in her marriage had shifted from “Moonlight and Roses” to “Daylight and Dishes.” This can happen in any marriage. It is foolish to believe that married life is going to be nothing more than a continuing romantic experience, though the spirit of courtship ought to continue throughout life – however long that may be.
If a marriage is to be all that it ought to be and can be, both husband and wife must genuinely listen to each other and support each other as they build a mature home where God is honored. A marriage seldom goes on the rocks when a couple finds something in common to laugh about. If you run out of things to laugh about in your marriage, you can pull out the old wedding pictures.
Solutions to the problems in any marriage are available if both husband and wife will do two very important things: ask for God’s guidance, and demonstrate a willingness to work at it.
The Paper Pulpit 
Leave a Reply