This week I read a story about being married named, “The Parable of the Manufactured Home Halves.” This is a great way to look at relationships. In the story, a man asks two builders to each build one half of a house for him. He didn’t give any directions or specifications. As you can tell this each half of the house is quite different. The perimeter walls and roof did not line up. At all.
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This is like two people coming together as husband and wife, they are different in most ways, physically and physiologically. This is a real-life scenario. There will be many things that don’t match up when you are first married, but if a couple is willing, they can do some exterior remodeling to help join the roofline and seal up the walls in order to keep the cold and wet out of their house. Mostly, there is lots of interior work to be done in order to function well as a team while learning to think as one.
My wife and I had to learn to work with each other. We still do and I know it will continue, lest we stop functioning as a whole. It’s a good thing she was willing to put up with me or I would probably be getting rained on in my half of the open-living room. I loved the visual of two halves of manufactured home not lining up as it reminded me of the vast differences that come from two partners. I know these differences make the marriage stronger and give character where it is needed.
-Mr.
Love and Marriage 