Though of the Day-May 21st, 2009

William Shakespeare said:

... Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,

that looks on tempests and is never shaken.

My husband and I live next to an older couple. Quite ironically that I have ties to the neighbor from my home town, I know his younger siblings, I recognized his face, but don't remember him because of our age difference. Anyway we (my husband and I) have been learning things bit by bit from our neighbor. Church, that's what I call him, as his last name is Churchill. Anyway Church has been teaching us landscaping tricks to make our lawn look picture perfect.

Now for weeks we had admired the look, the feel, the beauty of their lawn. My husband and I would talk about it daily of how we too wanted our lawn to look that way. I went over one evening after work and I told Mrs. Church, I have got to know what it is you did to get your lawn to look so picture perfect. Mrs. Church called Church to the room so he could begin to tell me what he did to nuture his lawn. He went into detail about how the lawn companies had just come out weeks before and treated lawns in the area. He said that is how he knew it was time to treat his as well. Church told me what to buy, I bought the item, then I went to tell Church that I had the goods, then he showed me (did not do it for me) how to apply it properly to my yard.

There were several steps, we had to treat the lawn, then we had to either water it, or pray for rain, we watered a little here and there, but mostly prayed for rain. Being that it was April we were guaranteed April showers. As I was a doubter I must mention that we only treated the front yard to see what would happen. Not even a week later we were treating the back yard because we wanted it to look as nice as the front yard.

So I was saying all this to comment on the landscaping took hard work, it took nurturing, it took time and it took both of us working together. It took my talking to Church to find out what he did, then I applied the substance to the yard, my husband applied the landscaping bricks and watered, then cut the yard in the right timing.

Marriage is much like the process that we went through with our yard. We researched what information we needed to be successful. We then applied that information, along with hard work, and continue to nuture the area, there is upkeep that must be done. Living and sharing your life with another individual brings about change, change in you, change in the environment and change in the other person. In order for you to have that internal strength that shows on the outside as a picture perfect reflection of Christ in you, you must nuture your marriage. It takes work, it requires upkeep, you both have to bring to the table your best.

I encourage you this day to research, to apply what you learn, to then nuture that area, finally maintain your marriage with daily upkeep.