I wanted to reflect on some of the recent reading I have been doing in a book entitled The Meaning of Marriage by John Piper. Being a young soon to be college graduate who is getting married this summer, this book has provided some timely wisdom into the topic of marriage.
Piper discusses what he calls the "compost pile." He and his wife refer to this as the place where they go to unload all of their junk. They see themselves not as perfect but as broken human beings who are just trying to love each other. The compost pile analogy allows them to get rid of the junk they throw at each other, by releasing it to the compost pile. They do this in order to fix their eyes back on the primary goal of marriage, which is to be a reflection of Jesus' relationship of Christ and the Church. By getting this perspective right, it allows them to forgive and love freely. He also discusses verbalizing what you're going through. Not letting someone else (especially your wife) into the things that you are going through creates tension and disunity. If marriages keep a vision of what they were made to do and seek to love and serve one another, then they will be much more successful than self-serving, navel-gazing couples.
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