pondering "The Marriage Ship"

#1 · December 5, 2016, 11:26 am

Quote from Forum Archives on December 5, 2016, 11:26 am
Posted by: pastorbob <pastorbob@...>

Spent some time today pondering marriage and developing this little illustration. Any suggestions?

The Marriage Ship

Marriage is not like a vacation cruise where you are to be pampered and served. You can sleep as late as you want, someone prepares and serves you food, everyone wants to make sure you are happy and entertained and there is a captain that you might get lucky and meet before you disembark.

Marriage is like working on one of those Bearing Sea Alaskan King Crab ships. There are times when you can rest and enjoy the journey and beautiful scenery BUT most of the time it is hard work that must be done together and in the right order. Marriage can be dirty, sweaty, bruising and exhausting work!

Oh, like the crabbers on TV, there are times of fair skies and smooth seas, and those times should be cherished! But there are times of freezing cold, high seas, busted equipment and empty nets that are all part of the same reality and must be dealt with TOGETHER.

The work is tough and the opportunities for crisis are numerous. Things break, sometimes the nets are bare or full of trash and your partner sometimes messes up – big time.

If one is overworked, overlooked or overburdened someone is getting hurt. When someone gets hurt the entire venture is in danger.

If one thinks they are a king or lord to be served they will quickly learn failure. If someone is a primadonna there is a wakeup call coming.

If one thinks they can slack off the whole team suffers. Crabbers do not tolerate lazy, neither should marriages.

If someone gets mad and leaves the deck the other must work harder until they return. Sometimes the one has the leave the deck and go after the one who left, deal with the issue and return to work together. No problems can be dealt with in separation. Deal with them the only way they can be dealt with - together.

Everyone is a greenhorn at the beginning, but if we stick with it and work hard in unity while we learn we will soon become grizzled veterans who can survive anything.

"Deckhands" learn to trust each other with their work, enjoy their time at work and at rest, build humor and accountability into their relationship and share the fruits of their labor.

There may be a captain, but his focus is keeping everyone and everything working together so all finish the journey safely and obtain their reward. His is the greater responsibility. He must answer to the boat's owner about everything that happened on the boat under his watch.

The reward of a hard-working team is immense, if everyone pulls their own weight and worked hard. The feeling of working hard and accomplishing a goal, personal fulfillment, the respect of your co-laborer and the reward from the ships creator and owner.

Marriage is definitely a "All Hands on Deck" adventure that requires every ounce of strength, courage and patience they have! Marriage is not "50-50" – divorce is "50-50"; marriage is 100%+100%X100% of the time!

Ephesians 5:22-33 "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband." ESV

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Posted by: pastorbob <pastorbob@...>

Spent some time today pondering marriage and developing this little illustration. Any suggestions?

The Marriage Ship

Marriage is not like a vacation cruise where you are to be pampered and served. You can sleep as late as you want, someone prepares and serves you food, everyone wants to make sure you are happy and entertained and there is a captain that you might get lucky and meet before you disembark.

Marriage is like working on one of those Bearing Sea Alaskan King Crab ships. There are times when you can rest and enjoy the journey and beautiful scenery BUT most of the time it is hard work that must be done together and in the right order. Marriage can be dirty, sweaty, bruising and exhausting work!

Oh, like the crabbers on TV, there are times of fair skies and smooth seas, and those times should be cherished! But there are times of freezing cold, high seas, busted equipment and empty nets that are all part of the same reality and must be dealt with TOGETHER.

The work is tough and the opportunities for crisis are numerous. Things break, sometimes the nets are bare or full of trash and your partner sometimes messes up – big time.

If one is overworked, overlooked or overburdened someone is getting hurt. When someone gets hurt the entire venture is in danger.

If one thinks they are a king or lord to be served they will quickly learn failure. If someone is a primadonna there is a wakeup call coming.

If one thinks they can slack off the whole team suffers. Crabbers do not tolerate lazy, neither should marriages.

If someone gets mad and leaves the deck the other must work harder until they return. Sometimes the one has the leave the deck and go after the one who left, deal with the issue and return to work together. No problems can be dealt with in separation. Deal with them the only way they can be dealt with - together.

Everyone is a greenhorn at the beginning, but if we stick with it and work hard in unity while we learn we will soon become grizzled veterans who can survive anything.

"Deckhands" learn to trust each other with their work, enjoy their time at work and at rest, build humor and accountability into their relationship and share the fruits of their labor.

There may be a captain, but his focus is keeping everyone and everything working together so all finish the journey safely and obtain their reward. His is the greater responsibility. He must answer to the boat's owner about everything that happened on the boat under his watch.

The reward of a hard-working team is immense, if everyone pulls their own weight and worked hard. The feeling of working hard and accomplishing a goal, personal fulfillment, the respect of your co-laborer and the reward from the ships creator and owner.

Marriage is definitely a "All Hands on Deck" adventure that requires every ounce of strength, courage and patience they have! Marriage is not "50-50" – divorce is "50-50"; marriage is 100%+100%X100% of the time!

Ephesians 5:22-33 "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband." ESV

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