Instead of tackling it all, the message is to do one thing. Just one. 

It becomes manageable. 

When I try to organize my house that is the strategy I take. One corner, one bookshelf. Then instead of just chipping away at the whole project, I am finished. I did it. Hurray! Tomorrow I will look at the list again and start fresh. My mother used to say she cleanered the house. To announce that she had cleaned it meant it was all done. But if she just mopped the floor it was cleaner than before. 

Working on your marriage, or supporting those of others can be just as daunting. Get a mentor, be a mentor, have a date night, babysit for a couple so they can have a date night, read a book, hold your tongue, try a communication skill, pray for others, learn your partner's love language, start a group, go to a conference, shun adultery, learn how to listen better. 

Enough already!

But one thing, just one thing, is not so daunting. 

There is a story about a man who went to visit a couple who had been happily married for longer than anyone could remember. He asked them what their secret was.1.

"Shun adultery. Love your wife alone."

Really? That was it? The most important thing in a sea of choices and oscillating priorities? Shun adultery? 

But that is too simple. 

In the book of Kings a soldier named Naaman has leprosy. He demands that the prophet Elijah heal him, and expects a flashy production involving miracles. This was the man who would one day be carried to heaven in a fiery chariot drawn by horses. But Elijah's answer is plain. 

"Wash in the Jordan River seven times."

That's it? No fire coming down from heaven? No heroic efforts? Just wash? Naaman is indignant, and refused to comply with such a mundane request. Then a little girl reasoned with him. 

"If the man of God had asked you to do some great thing, you would have done it. Why will you not do a small thing?" Chastened, Naaman washes and his skin becomes as pure as that of a baby. 

Shun adultery. That's not a long list. But I have a suspicion it carries a lot of power.