The enemy makes all couples in relational "trouble" think their case is unusually unique, isolated, a disaster that is singularly beyond repair. Untrue! If they could only see these domestic clashes as spiritual warfare attacking all families everywhere, it would help them successfully weather each skirmish one by one. Their winning emotional stance? --make your resolve immovable, battle ready, dead set against the enemy's forces to dissolve the marriage. Commitment is your fortress.
Ever since the moral fall in the Garden of Eden, it is nearly impossible for two people of any sort of combination to get along. Even two friends on vacation will battle over the thermostat or one of them will be irritatingly "taking too long" to pack up each morning! Cantankerous father/son relationships, disgruntled neighbors, sparring siblings or impossible employees at work are all the norm, not the exception. Disconnection was the prize of the Fall. 'Twas a rude awakening--not just in the Garden of Eden but every day. Clashes ever newly take us by surprise. Ambush us.
Continually buttress yourself with "no exit" thoughts, for these reasons. The illusion that the grass is greener with someone else is just that--an illusion. One only trades one set of problems for another. Thus, second marriages become third and fourth marriages. Nowhere is the scripture more applicable that "the way of the transgressor is HARD." Thus begins the runaway wife's endless hunt for the better guy, while her emotional life daily goes to ribbons via the hunt amidst a now far diminished field of choices and endless dating of "used" prospects, and the runaway husband now faces financial bondage. Now he financially must support two households instead of one, while his net worth goes downhill from there.
After the divorce the illusion that the landscape is now "tsk, tsk freedom reigns territory", is a lie. By getting rid of the terribly offensive mate, they each don't see it now, but they will see it: they will now be involved with decisions re: the children until their dying day. Divorce doesn't simplify. The contention and contagion only grow.
The answer to marital discord is always to dig deeper. Line up for yet more advice and more navigation principles from the only one who knows how to do it: our Maker.
