A few nights ago, my husband and I got into a big argument. We had just gotten home from a long day of flying. We were over-tired and not thinking straight. Words flew carelessly in the air and we threw verbal punches at each other, back and forth.
It was one of those moments where you would be ashamed if anyone took a peep through your door.
While we were on vacation, award-winning Christian song-writer Sara Groves was in concert where we were staying and before one of her songs, she told us she wasn’t going to be ashamed to expose any “dirty laundry” and that she wanted to be transparent with us. She talked about the fights her and her husband have had before.
I resonated with her words and appreciated her brutal honesty. I had thought: Wow, she struggles too? Sara talked a little more and began playing the keys. Here’s what she sang:
We just had a World War III here in our kitchen – We both thought the meanest things
And then we both said them – We shot at each other till we lost amunition
This is how I know our love – This is when I feel it’s power
Here in the absence of it – This is my darkest hour
When both of us are hunkered down – And waiting for the truce
All the complicated wars – They end pretty simple
Here when the lights go down – We roll to the middle
No matter how my pride resists – No matter how this wall feels true
No matter how I can’t be sure – That you’re gonna roll in too
No matter what, no matter what – I’m going to reach for you
(song: “Roll to the Middle”)
I was reminded of our arguments in the past, and how there were sure to be more in the future but how I’ve experienced that our love is always stronger. After Jeremiah and I were finished taking jabs, we came to our senses. We agreed to go to bed and talk in the morning and that we were way overtired.
That morning, I confessed my pride and how I wasn’t even making sense. Jeremiah confessed where he was wrong and we forgave each other. I was reminded of Sara’s song and how true it was in our marriage.
It didn’t matter what we were arguing about, the truth was that we are for each other. We are on the same team and our love is bigger than any of our petty conflicts. The foundation of our love is Christ.
We were also reminded that on our vacation God blessed us with an incredible, life-changing time, free of any conflicts, and how it would be foolish to allow that disagreement to close out an amazing trip.
Pride turned into humility and that night we rolled to the middle, at peace in our relationship.
