FamilyLife Staff conference here in Little Rock has made for a busy week. The two younger girls have been in kid care all day and Charissa has been helping with babies in the nursery while Eric and I have been in meetings. The conference just ended a few hours ago, and we are still processing a lot of what was said but one simple concept from Ron Deal jumped out at me. Ron had several times of sharing with staff on couples’ communication and conflict resolution, but today he reminded us again that these issues are not the ‘end all and be all’ of our lives. Our final destination is union with Christ – not a better marriage. Marriage is just part of God’s design to help us ‘Travel Safe’. What did he mean by this? Well, read on…
The analogy Ron used brought me back to summer camp. When we had swim time at the camp I went to in New Hampshire, we always had to find a buddy. At random times during open swim the lifeguard would blow his whistle and call ‘Buddy Check!’. You had to be close enough to your swim buddy to clasp hands and raise them out of the water for the lifeguard to see in just a few seconds or there would be trouble. Marriage, Ron said is one of God’s designed ‘buddy systems’ to help us to travel safe through this world that is so easy to get ‘drowned’ in.
It is not the only system God has in place for this, though. Whether married or single, Ron’s second analogy applies as well.
We have all seen them during museum visits or maybe walking through a tourist town. A school field trip group moving from one place to another by rope. The teacher holds the rope and each small child is supposed to hang on, making sure none get lost in the crowd. The church, Ron said, is the rope. If we all hang on together to Christ the head, we are less likely to lose our way and are able to travel through life more safely.
Thanks for ‘hanging on to the rope’ with us! Travel safe, friends!