Devotionals by FamilyLife

Hope on the Rocks (With Salt, Please)
By Laura Way

It amazes me how quickly pain and discomfort can make hope feel elusive—even for small things. A two-week bout with a nose that ran like a faucet, and I was only partially kidding when I told my husband I couldn’t remember what it felt like to breathe through my nose.

How much more in the biggest of things, like a hurting marriage, will holding on to hope take fighting for truth?

If your marriage is on the rocks, you are probably not okay. That makes sense, but don’t lose heart. Here are four truths to remember.

1. No marriage is static.
Maybe the pain has all but erased the memory of what health felt like or drained any hope for improvement to the dregs. Wherever your marriage is today, it’s not a permanent state.

2. Things can change.
Take steps to change what you can: yourself. Focus your attention toward maintaining self-control rather than controlling the other person or merely reacting to whatever they did. You can change, but…

3. It takes time.
Personal change takes time. Changing a marriage on the rocks takes even longer. But as you begin to change your part, the dynamic of your relationship can’t help but change. Although it might not be at the pace you’d like. Celebrate even the smallest successes and keep focusing on the pieces you can control (namely, yourself).

4. God is able.
Marriage is hard. Two far-from-perfect people journeying through a broken, but beautiful, world together—it seems crazy to some. But God. God is able to sustain, kindle, revive, renew, and recreate when needed.

All marriages go through tough times, but is your marriage really as bad as it seems? Read more.

The Good Stuff: For nothing will be impossible with God. (Luke 1:37)

Action Points: Does your marriage feel static or stuck? Consider today what you can begin to change in your own role. Pray for grace to faithfully love your spouse well through this on-the-rocks season.

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