Being Married is Tough #4 – Guard Your Heart
I may not know a whole lot of things about marriage and life, but I do know this one important thing: we have to fight to have a great marriage. Part of fighting is defense. When I was younger someone tried to teach me how to box. They kept saying you have to keep your hands up and guard yourself. I just couldn’t figure out how you guard yourself and yet punch the other guy. It was one of those things I never did quite wrap my brain around. How can I attack and defend at the same time? I needed to realize if you don’t guard your face you will end up with a black eye.
It is the same with our marriage and our hearts. Life teaches us that if we don’t keep our guard up when it comes to marriage that we might just get knocked out of the ring. So if we need to fight to keep our marriages tough what do we need to know as we enter the ring?
Remember Not Everyone is Pulling for You, So Keep Your Guard Up
I hang around with people quite a bit. I like to sit back and watch the room when I’m in a gathering of people. Sometimes it is a great show to watch. People talking their way through the room and meeting people they do not know or have known for a while. It amazes me sometimes when people who are married start hanging around people who are not who they are married to.
I think there are a couple of kinds of people who have affairs. Those who aggressively fish places they know have given them a catch before. They will go back to that spot and purposely seek out a place to get a fish. They are skilled fisherman or women who go and seek someone specific. They have an idea who can be caught and what bait it will take to catch them. Then, there are the others who troll fish. They take their troll boat out and drop a line in the water and whoever they happen to catch will be fine with them. That is why you keep your guard up.
In 1 Peter 5:8 the Bible talks about evil, or the devil, roaming around sneaking to find someone or something to destroy. When we realize that others are not always looking for our best, but their best that we keep our guard up and protect ourselves from the fisher’s hook that will lead to nothing but pain and sorrow. I just happen to believe that if we make a connection beyond the physical or emotional but on a spiritual level as well. When we pray together it builds a bond between us that no hook or jab can connect with us. Praying together can change our marriages. Plus it gives us a connection so unique that it cannot be broken by someone else.
Remember Temptation Can Hit Us All, So Keep Your Guard Up
Hebrews 13:14 gives us some advice and a warning. It reads, “Marriage should be honored by everyone, and husband and wife should keep their marriage pure. God will judge as guilty those who take part in sexual sins.” The time that we think we don’t need to watch our guard is when we are going to get knocked out. It is important to realize that if you don’t take care and honor your marriage someone else will. So guard the honor that comes with being married. Honor each other every day, because becoming disenchanted with your marriage happens over time not just in a moment. We are all living on the edge and can easily wake up one day surprised by where we have ended up.
You’ve Got Too Much to Lose, So Keep Your Guard Up
Anyone who has been married has invested themselves in their relationship. 2 John 1:8 says, “Be on your guard, then, so that you will not lose what we have worked for, but will receive your reward in full.” If we have something that is valuable we will guard it and protect it. We need to do this with our marriages also. Our love for someone else needs to be guarded and watched over. If we don’t keep our guard up and protect our marriage then we can lose it all in a moment. We have to never give up on this love we have for each other and work every day to make sure it stays protected. So we keep fighting for this love we have for another person and make it last for one more day, week, month, year or lifetime.
We must keep our gloves up and guard our hearts and love against everything that comes punching at our marriages. Our hearts are fickle and human so we need to keep our eye and mind on them. We need to make sure above everything else we guard our own heart and share it only with the one we truly love. If you don’t guard your heart then someone or something will come in and destroy this marriage we cherish so much.