Water Your Marriage

I have a spider plant that just won’t stop making babies. I really don’t do much with the plant, but I faithfully water it, give it plenty of sunshine, and fertilize it once a month. So it happily grows and grows. In fact, it grows so fast and multiplies so often that I have made several Facebook posts asking friends to come and adopt the baby spider plants!

Our marriage is much like a plant. When we marry, we plant our little seedlings of love, and then we watch it grow. But as time goes on, if we don’t water it regularly, our marriage can wither and die if it isn’t cared for faithfully. And if we don’t give it sunshine and fertilize it consistently, it won’t be healthy.

We have to be purposeful about “watering” our marriage. We must consciously make the effort to sprinkle lots of encouragement, words of affirmation and love, acts of kindness and service, and gifts of mercy and grace. And we must do this regularly. We must cheer one another on and watch our baby plants of love, commitment, faithfulness, trust, and companionship grow and multiply so that we can then give to others.

Sometimes I’ll find a weed in my plant, and if I don’t get it out of there, it’ll take over and kill my plant. But as I get rid of the weed, I must be careful that I don’t damage it or its roots, so I do it gently. I first water it, because, if the soil is moist, pulling the weed out is much safer and easier. Like my plant, sometimes we’ll find a “weed” in our marriage—an attitude, a bad habit, a neglectful trend, etc.—and although we need to pull it out, we must be gentle and wise and careful that we don’t hurt our relationship in the process.

1 Corinthians 3:6-9 shows us God’s process of growth. We water and weed and tend our marriage garden, and as we work with God, our marriage will grow stronger, deeper, and more productive. And as we ask for his wisdom, God will open our eyes to knowing how to water our marriages, how to deal with the weeds, and how to fertilize our relationship so it will continue to grow. Ask Him; He will show us how to make our marriage thrive.

How do you water your marriage? I’d love to know!