(Heidi St. John) Have you ever hit a “rough spot” in your life? I hate them. Strong word, I know. Mothers have all kinds of places in their lives for rough spots, don’t they? Rough spots can occur anywhere in life, but I especially hate the ones that worm their wicked way into my marriage. Over twenty-four years of marriage, we’ve hit several rough spots. Usually, we hit them and they’re over. An argument. A disagreement over a matter of little importance. A bad mood. A lack of time for intimacy. A misunderstanding. Financial pressure. Address them and move on. Done. Occasionally, though, they last a while. Those are the really hards ones. They can look more like this:
A period of financial stress that lasts for months, even years
Broken trust that cannot simply be “forgotten” but must be forgiven — if healing is to happen
Lack of sexual desire, where one spouse desires more sexual intimacy than the other
Discontentment (Mix it with the Internet … and you have a marriage-killing cocktail)
A habit of taking each other for granted
There are others, of course. We all have our weaknesses. Satan knows all too well which emotional “buttons” to push in order to drive a wedge into a marriage. Have you felt him with his hammer and wedge? I have. Sometimes the hammer hits hard — the spot is just beginning to scab over when *bam!* another blow. How do we move forward? READ MORE
