The other week playing tennis, my partner and I were down 3 games to 1. ’Okay, let’s get it back to 3 all for starters,’ I said and she agreed. Then after we won the next game, we both said ‘remember the plan.’
One game was a particularly long drawn out game that went to a number of deuces, about twenty in all. We kept hanging in there telling each other, ‘remember the plan, remember the plan,’ repeating it like a mantra. It occurred to me then, that it’s not a bad analogy for marriage – to remember the plan.
When we first get married we nearly all start out with a plan being to have a happy lasting marriage. Sometimes it may seem that the plan’s not working out, that it’s all too hard, and too much like hard work maintaining a marriage.
It’s when times get tough, it helps to remember what’s at stake and just hang in there. It means working at your marriage to get it back onto an even keel, much the same as my partner and I kept battling to win the points and close out the game.
It means encouraging your partner and always keeping your eyes on what is most important and not being sidetracked by little unimportant details. It means not letting a few problems derail the main plan.
In our tennis game, reminding ourselves of the plan and a certain amount of stubbornness that refused to see us give in, paid off. It seems to me that both these are at times necessary in a marriage as well.
If we just keep our eyes on the end result, instead of letting minor irritations and daily problems get to us, our marriages might have a better chance of long term success. It’s at times like these we need to keep encouraging each other and spur each other on and always remember the plan.
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