Cindy and I began 2005 the way we have many others in our 32 years of marriage: My son, John, and I spent almost eight hours watching football games on TV on New Years day and Cindy spent an equal number of hours putting together a jigsaw puzzle. It wasn’t until a few days later when I picked up the book, Lovers for Life, and read a story by David Maitland, that I saw how marriage is a lot like a jigsaw puzzle.

Maitland used putting a jigsaw puzzle together as a word picture of marriage saying: “Sometimes the process is enjoyable and relaxing, sometimes it is frustrating and challenging, but it is always time-consuming.”

Now, as a man, I sometimes find it challenging to put into words my feelings and emotions when it comes to relating to Cindy in our marriage (even after all of these years). So, when I find something that helps me understand the dynamics of marriage a little bit better I want to share it with other men. Because, I’m almost positive I’m not the only husband who struggles in this area. See if you can relate too to what Maitland says:

The only way to survive marriage is to stop and realize that your goal is to learn how you can fit together with your mate like pieces of a puzzle that unite to form a beautiful picture. So often we marry people who are opposite to us and try to shape them to become the same piece of the puzzle that we are. In the long run we design a puzzle that will never fit together.

I could relate to what Maitland says here because my approach to putting a jigsaw puzzle together is if the pieces don’t seem to go in easily I can always “make” them fit by banging on them (I’m not very patient when it comes to putting puzzles together). The end result would be that I got the piece in but not the way it was designed to be.

I also realized a number of years ago that Cindy and I had a tendency to try and make our lives mesh together in ways that God never intended. We would try over and over again to get the other to conform to our idea of how the marriage puzzle should fit together, but in the end it came out a mess rather than the beautiful “picture of marriage” God wanted.

Fortunately, a number of years ago we began to realize, as Maitland did, “If we combined our strengths, we could eliminate our weaknesses and the puzzle would fit perfectly together.”

Maitland goes on to say:

We began carving out areas where we could use our strengths and help each other. We would try to stay out of the other’s area or yield to the other’s wisdom in his or her strong area. It took time and communication, but today we are working the puzzle principle, and we are tough to beat at things we endeavor to do together. We make a great team when we use our strengths to cover each other’s weaknesses.

Cindy and I can attest to the fact that when we came to grips with this principle it radically changed our marriage almost overnight. The more we focus on building up each other’s strengths, the less time we will have to dwell on any of our weaknesses. We can tell you, too, that if this principle didn’t work there would be no Marriage Missions.

God uses us to be a part of your lives because we continue to focus on ways to carry out our responsibilities, each doing his or her best to help the other and glorify God.

Maitland addresses this by saying:

We often wonder how many couples are fighting against each other, trying to prove each other wrong, frustrated that their mates do not do things like they do. Some of us can even be jealous of our spouse’s strengths, feeling that their strengths expose our weaknesses. Then we criticize and belittle our mates with cutting remarks. We may be so conditioned to think our way is the only way that we show a lack of trust in our spouses. We worry that our mates’ talents will become so strong that they won’t need us anymore.

God made husbands and wives to be a team, to be helpmates, to become one. I want to encourage you to look at your wife or husband from a different perspective. Don’t look down on your mates’ weaknesses, but use your strengths to help him or her. Don’t be jealous of your mate’s accomplishments; let his or her strengths help you to become a better person.

Our goal should be to use our talents and strengths to complement our mates… help him or her to soar to great heights. If you do this, the pieces of the puzzle you are designing will come together. As you follow this principle, you will not lose your mate’s love and need for you; instead, you will be astonished at how your puzzle pieces mesh.

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We believe so strongly in what David Maitland shared because we’ve seen it work in our own lives. But maybe after reading this you are thinking today, “That may work for most couples, but my marriage is way beyond putting the pieces of the puzzle back together again. There are too many missing pieces (from harsh words, abuse, unfaithfulness, etc) to ever be able to make our marriage puzzle into a beautiful picture.”If that’s you, read on:

“When we open our hearts to seek the help of God given to us in His Word, we can begin to put our lives and marriages back together one piece at a time. God wants to help you. No matter how bad your marriage is or how messed up your life is, God wants to help. He proved this by the ultimate sacrifice of His Son (Jesus) on the cross. Take the missing puzzle piece that God offers.” (David Maitland from Lovers for Life)

Cindy and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that without Jesus Christ at the center of our marriage our marriage puzzle would be a mess today. As we begin a new year, let’s determine that with God’s help our marriage puzzles will begin to reflect His perfect picture. If you would like more help on how to do this, we have many free articles and resources on our web site that you can share with others. Our desire in 2005, just as it was in 2004, is to Put the Heart of Christ Back Into Marriage.

May God bless and encourage you to love each other with the love of Christ,

Cindy and Steve Wright

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