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I awoke from a dream last night with my heart pounding in my chest. The Lord immediately spoke to my heart as to the meaning of the dream. I saw a large bridge spanning over a vast opening. It was an important bridge - the kind you would see close to a large city. I immediately noticed a small hole in one lane of traffic. It was starting to affect the flow of traffic because people were trying to avoid it.
The hole then began to increase in size - so much so that you could see straight through it. It was as big as two lanes of traffic now! Part of the bridge was beginning to fall apart and cars were now falling through the broken bridge into the ravine. It was a devastating sight to behold.
I was extremely appalled that the authorities had not repaired this bridge and were just letting cars still drive on it! People were getting hurt and no one was doing anything about it! It was an upsetting sight to witness these cars falling through the gap.
I instantly knew that this bridge represented marriage. On one side you have the woman, on the other side you have the man, and the bridge represents the marriage that connects them. The hole represents problems and broken parts in the marriage. The bridge was still a bridge, but it was not whole. Two people can be legally married, but their marriage may not be whole.
The sad part for me was the realization that the cars on the bridge represented those upheld by a marriage – the children. We may tell ourselves that the broken parts of our marriage are no big deal – but our children depend on us to have a solid relationship. Without it, they begin to fall through the cracks.
At first I didn’t realize why the authorities on both sides had refused to repair the bridge. However, I soon saw that both sides didn’t feel it was their responsibility to fix it. They felt that whatever caused the destruction rested on the shoulders of those on the other side. The result? Hurt, pain, and death. Sadly, this is true for many marriages. It has been true for mine. The wife says that if the husband would just fix this, this, and this, then the marriage would be better. But, the husband says that until the wife fixes that, that, and that, the marriage will not get better.
The result is a broken marriage with innocent children falling through the broken pieces. Jesus said in Mark 3:
If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
Are there broken parts to the bridge of your marriage? Are there holes there that neither you nor your husband can agree on how they got there? Digging your heels in the ground and refusing to repair something you may not have caused may leave your family with a crumbling bridge. You will not be hurt the most from it. Your husband will not be hurt the most from it. The innocent lives that are depending on that bridge to get them from childhood into a healthy adulthood will be hurt the most.
Father, I don’t want the broken parts of my marriage to end up hurting the children you’ve trusted me with. I know that if I ignore the holes in the bridge of my marriage, it will only get worse. Please show me steps that I can take to start repairing the gaps. I can’t be responsible for what my husband repairs, but I can repair what you show me to do. Thank you for giving me wisdom and creative ideas for what I can do starting now.