Busting the Seven Myths of a Christian Marriage - Part 1

By Judy Bodmer

One couple thought being Christians would save them from marital problems. Their naive beliefs made everything worse.

"Larry, we have to talk," Our argument from the night before still hung in the air. "There's something wrong with our marriage."

"Judy, I have to go," Larry said, clearly irritated.

"Don't you love me?" I asked.

"Sure I do. I have employees waiting to be let in."

"Larry, if you love me, why don't I feel it?" I needed him to put his arms around me and reassure me.

But he didn't. He just walked out the door.

What had happened to us? Two years before, when we'd committed our lives to Jesus Christ, Larry and I had been like newlyweds again. I was sure with God as our partner, our journey through life would be smooth. But it wasn't.

We started to fight, sometimes over the stupidest things, such as the way he read the newspaper or ate his cereal. I felt guilty for my angry outbursts. Christians didn't act that way, I reasoned. So in the name of peace, I swallowed my feelings and prayed God would make Larry more thoughtful, open, loving, and romantic. But with each passing year, our fights grew in frequency and intensity. We became like strangers sharing a house.

I slogged through two years hoping things would change for the better, but they didn't. Surely this wasn't what God wanted, yet I could see no hope of happiness with this man.

In the heat of one of our arguments I said "divorce." Larry hardly winced. Maybe it was the solution to our problems.

At the end of my rope, I confided in my sister Barbara how unhappy I was. She and her husband, Dave, arranged for us to attend a weekend marriage retreat. During that weekend, one of the speakers talked about his fear of being unable to live up to everyone's expectations. After that session, each couple had some time to communicate with each other their thoughts about what the speaker had said. In a rare moment of courage, Larry dropped his defenses and shared how he identified with the speaker and how hard it was to please me, his employees, his customers, his friends, and his family. He even told me about the pain of unmet expectations he carried from his childhood. As I listened to his openness, I could feel the wall I'd built toward him over the years begin to come down. Through several tearful conversations that weekend, we were able to forgive each other for the pain and hurt we'd caused and start over.

But it wasn't until we realized how naive we'd been-thinking that because we were Christians our marriage would be perfect-were we able to uncover the myths we'd bought into. While we realized many of these myths were well-meaning, they were destroying our marriage! After that weekend, Larry and I spent several years blasting these seven myths and uncovering the truth. Here's what we discovered.

Myth #1 If I have a daily quiet time and attend church regularly, I'll have a happy marriage.

In church I'd often hear that if I'd spend time with God every morning and study the Bible, my life and marriage would go well. So I started a daily quiet time, began memorizing Scripture, and joined a women's Bible study. I believed these "religious" acts would help my marriage be all I wanted. But when nothing changed and, in fact, things seemed to get worse, not only did I become disillusioned with our marriage, I also began to question my relationship with God.

This is the truth: Every couple goes through tough times-even Christians. Jesus clearly states that "in this world you will have trouble" (John 16:33). Does that mean it doesn't make any difference whether we read our Bibles and attend church? No. While God didn't take away those painful times, and he didn't always answer our prayers in the way we'd assumed, he used our trouble to focus and mature us through our prayers and Bible studies.