Marriage Moats-Out of My League

Published: Sat, 08/13/11

Marriage Moats

Caring for Marriage

I am not a marriage counselor. Have I mentioned this before?

There are perfectly qualified counselors out there, on the other end of the phone or within a five mile radius. They can help you untangle your childhood trauma, and referee your verbal sparring. Therapists have endured thousands of hours of training and supervision, and depending on how long they have held their shingle out, years of experience.

I on the other hand am a lowly marriage educator. It is true that I have listened to hundreds of workshops and full day trainings, read shelves of marriage books, and led groups for a couple of decades. It is also accurate to say that supporting marriage is the first thing I think about when I leap out of bed at daybreak and usually the last prayer to pass my lips as I slump back each evening. But I am still a newbie.

I can not revive a marriage in cardiac arrest, any more than a nurse's aide can perform open heart surgery. Sometimes people are angry with me about this.

But it is my humble hope that the genuine, repetitive intention to look at our marriages, past, present and future, can keep those hearts thumping.

Photo by Jenny Stein

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