Monday's Marriage Moment - A Distorted View in Marriage Can Divide

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
-Genesis 3:1

Have you ever been to a carnival? They are full of distractions, right? Things to catch your attention, and shift your focus from the path you were on: come over here and play this game, let me guess your weight, win this prize - it's easy. There is always some trick or gimmick that actually makes it harder and cost more than you thought. We can be pretty good at seeing the distraction, and even avoiding some of them, but what we have missed are the distortions. See, a distortion happens when things are twisted or pulled out of shape or misrepresented.

Like the mirrors in a "fun house". You've seen those? The mirrors are different from the ones that we have at our homes. They cause us to see ourselves as really thin or really fat; our features can be elongated or shrunken. The images they produce can be funny, but sometimes they are downright scary.

A distorted mirror causes you to see things differently than they really are, and while it's all fun and games at a carnival it is detrimental in marriage.

Want to know how this shows up in marriage?

• our perception gets distorted and we see things bigger than they are, worse than they are, harder than they are, etc.  
• the truth gets distorted, and we say things like:
• you "always" do that
• you "never" support me
• our vision gets distorted, and we forget why we entered marriage and what our goals are

All of these things cause division between us and our spouse which is exactly what the enemy wants.

He wants you to make sure that you can't see clearly. He is cunning and crafty, and he is going to introduce doubt and distortions. That's what he did to Eve in the garden. He questioned what she knew by distorting the truth of what God said: Did God really say that? 

He is going to try to do the same thing to you so that he can cause division in your marriage too. Don't allow him to distort the truth or your vision.

Yeah, distractions are deadly, but so are distortions. We have to start seeing things accurately. We must have clear vision in marriage. If you have been seeing things through one of those "fun house mirrors" today is a good day to refocus. Begin to see things as they really are, and look through the lens of God's word, not your emotions.

No more distortions!