https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gs3fg_WsEg&list=RD_Gs3fg_WsEg&start_radio=1&t=0
Dancing in the Minefields ~ Andrew Peterson
[Love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ~ 1 Corinthians 13:7 NIV
If you’ve ever walked along the beach, perhaps you’ve enjoyed how the sand feels. The sand at Siesta Key Beach in Sarasota, Florida is soft and cool, smoothly pouring out of your hand like granules of sugar. It’s beautiful! Not too deep into the water, however, the wet sand no longer pours smoothly out of your hands. Instead, it drops down in wet glops. Marriage and life have seasons which feel like sugary and gloppy sand, and they can move from sunny skies to hurricanes in a heartbeat.
It’s during the stormy seasons that you must shift from cruise control to being purposefully and perseveringly engaged. It’s a season like when the bills are already piling up and your spouse’s hours get cut. Or when the world is already falling apart, your dear friend has cancer, your kids have drama at school, and your spouse tells you awful news. But life and marriage aren’t just about one extreme or the other. There is a Designer who wants to use all of it.
Every year, the beaches in southwest Florida are filled with beautiful sand sculptures. The sculptors spend hours creating a unique design. The designs are everything from ornate sandcastles to book characters and scenes to anything imaginable – and it’s all amazing! But like the sand, our lives and marriages will never become a work of art if we quit before the Designer is finished.
Sixteen years ago, today, Brad and I said, “I do.” The promise made has been the promise kept, even through the choppiest of storms. But we’ve learned over the years that in the roughest seasons, it’s important to put our lives—and our marriage—into the hands of the Designer and allow Him to create something beautiful.
If your life or marriage feels more like wet, gloppy sand that’s been tossed about by stormy seas, I want to encourage you to not quit. Instead, place your life and your marriage into the Designers hands and watch as He shapes it into something amazing!
©Heather Potts 2020
