For Love of Words

A Growing Thing

Marriage

As I was driving today, I saw a sign on a church that was advertising a weekend conference entitled, “The Art of Marriage.” That’s a great descriptive title–marriage as a work of art.  I’m not a very creative, artsy person though, so I was trying to come up with a different metaphor for myself.  As I was thinking about this,  I noticed my one hanging plant.  This plant has been with us since before we were married.  It was 
actually Ron’s plant while we were still in college.  He
faithfully watered it on a schedule and the thing thrived in his 
room.  When we got married, since I was home much more 
often, I took over its care.  Poor plant.  It’s still alive, and most of the time it’s healthy.  But, I only water it when I notice that the leaves are curling and there’s dead, brown things on it.  This plant is the heartiest thing ever.  I feel bad when I finally notice its sad state and give it some water, and it always bounces back within a day.  I’m really amazed that I haven’t completely done this poor growing thing in!


Anyway, what it made me realize is that I tend to handle my relationships, especially with my husband, in the same way.  I have a tendency to blithely go along in life, not paying a whole lot of extra attention to relationship things like communication, etc. until I notice something is amiss.  Then I am willing to do something to help.  But sometimes it takes me a while to recognize that something is not right, and by that time, the relationship is suffering.  It takes a little while for things to be right and healthy and growing again.

Our marriage is a living, growing thing that takes care, regular attention, and regular maintenance.  That might sound weird, but it made total sense to me as I was observing my plant.  Let me show you what I saw on two different days:

Notice the curling, sad leaves in the first one and how much happier they look in the second one.  It was a good object lesson for me.
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  1. One of my Facebook friends is having that program, "The Art of Marriage" at their church, and she says it is being held at churches all over the country. Hope it is well-attended everywhere! Great object lesson with the plant!

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  6. That is so funny, because I am always saying to my husband "marriage is just like a plant! " if you don't water it, it's gonna wilt, dry up and die! 🙂

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