Marriage and plants are similar in a very essential way: they both need care; without it both wither and die. Have you ever been awed by a beautiful garden and wish you could keep your own looking so beautiful? If you ask the gardener what he does, he will tell you “lots of care.” A good and responsible gardener prunes the plants just right. At the right time, fertilizer and water is given in just the right amount. He is careful to set the plants where they get the required amount of shade and sunlight. If he uses an herbicide, he is sure to put it on the weeds not on the plants.
Most often marriage starts out with healthy, but new plants that need much care. However, when the weeds begin to grow, no one pulls them out, no one water or fertilizes the young plants and soon the beautiful young garden withers and dies. The gardeners angrily blame each other for the pitiful state of the garden and rather than looking for an expert gardener that might instruct them on how to clean and repair the damage; they abandon the young garden and separately look for another piece of ground where to start a new one. Little do they know that the problem is neither the ground nor the plants, but the care they failed to give.
If you were to take this analogy and apply it to your marriage what are the weeds you find?
What fertilizer do you use? Do you mistakenly use Roundup as fertilizer?
Is your marriage drying out for lack of water and too much sun?
Does it need pruning?
If you are looking for healthy blossoms, pruning is painful, but always necessary.
e.f.
