Marriage Investments

The Wells of Marriage

A well is a viable resource in the sustaining of life. All living beings must have water in order to maintain life. Without it, we will become drained and weary. If we are denied this resource for an extended length of time, it can result in death. Just as in life, our marriages must have resources that revive and sustain them.

When we first enter into the wonderful institution of marriage, we find that we are refreshed by merely the very presence of each other. However, just as in many instances throughout our life, time tends to change the blessed institution of marriage. When these changes occur, it can seem that the divine institution OF marriage, is more like an ‘institution’... because of marriage. The pulls and demands of life drain us of the beauty and resources to refresh each other, and we find our relationship dry and weary. Rather than a resource FOR each other, we often demand a resource FROM each other. If left unattended we find ourselves seeking something or someone else to refresh and sustain us, and begin living our life as individuals who simply coexist in the same house while our relationship, deprived of any refreshment, withers and dies.

In John 4:14 Jesus gives us the answer, “But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It will become a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” Our resource must be from the only One in whom there is an eternal spring of refreshment and life. When we find ourselves dry, as both individuals or as a couple, it is because the well we are drawing from is one based on a temporal source, not an ever flowing stream.

As we drove up to our house we were surprised by a stream of water flowing down our driveway. Our first thought was that a pipe had burst only to discover that we had left the water hose turned on while watering our horse. Being gone out of town, two days had gone by and the water was still flowing. Had we been on city water, we would have paid one expensive water bill, and a normal well would have long been depleted. However, our well was fed by an underground spring that kept us constantly supplied with flowing water.

In order to stay refreshed as a couple, we must come to the only source that can give us the sustenance we need. We know this often as individuals, but often forget or refuse to do it as a couple. For our relationship to maintain the energy and life needed to be a testimony for the kingdom of God, we must drink together from the never ending water of the presence of God. When we do this, we are ensuring that our marriage will survive the dry and draining trials of life.

copyright 2018 Debbie Reed