Don’t overlook the cast-offs in your marriage

One of my favorite parts on HGTV’s “Fixer Upper” is when Chip and Joanna walk to the back of a garage, shed or attic of the house they’re working on and discover something useful to implement into the remodel. What looks like an old pile of wood happens to be a stack of doors that once provided privacy in the home.
    Once Chip and Joanna decide to use the doors and refinish the glass, it might be used on an indoor cabinet or in the front windows of the home. The doorknobs are even used as creative design elements. Reclaiming what appears to be old, good-for-nothing junk is as natural as breathing for them. Nothing is wasted. They restore and renew what most people would readily abandon.
    In their years of experience working on fixer uppers, they know you don’t ignore the cast-offs. You figure out their potential and how they can be made effective again.
    In marriage, when the going gets tough, we can be tempted to throw the marriage away like those cast-offs. Communication is terrible. The molehills have become treacherous mountains to climb. Sexual needs aren’t being fulfilled. Expectations are never met. You love each other, but you just don’t like each other. Life seems insurmountable to tackle. Is the relationship even worth holding onto?
    Not only that, but we each bring to the table hurts, habits and hang-ups we can bury in a shed and never deal with. Bringing our issues to light is just too difficult: a past abuse, abortion, pornography, anger problem, emotional affair, alcoholism, secret sin and more. So, our mess sits there collecting dust in the darkness while our relationship severely suffers.
  

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