Marriages and relationships are a lot like taking a flight across the country. Before you actually board your plane, no one knows how your flight will go! Not even the pilot! We all ASSUME it will be smooth flying and take it for granted that we will land safely. Like any flight marriages can start out smooth and turbulence-free, but sometimes, unexpected turbulence or challenges can happen at any moment. It is important for you to remember that despite any turbulence we encounter, we still all want to arrive at our destination.
God is the author of the ideal flight plan (the Bible). It is up to the co-pilots (husband and wife) to follow it. If they deviate, they wind up in trouble with the FAA, wander into bad weather, run out of gas, and so on. You have no control over your destiny; it is all in the pilot’s hands. God, however, gives us free will so we CAN and DO deviate from His flight plan; He is the big eye in the sky. He is the Air Traffic Controller who can see where the other planes are, and where the storms are, and then vector you around them.
Families are being destroyed by the epidemic of divorce, and our youth are increasingly exposed to unwholesome media to fuel the fire of premarital sex, drug abuse and suicide. The wall (marriage and the family unit) is crumbling! The broken, crumbled wall can be restored using the flight plans in The Marriage Journey. We give attention to almost every element of our surroundings (vehicles, homes, clothing, offices, body, and more), but neglect our marriages. Consider this: if you never change the oil in the vehicle, what happens? It breaks down and stops running. Neglect the home and it also becomes uninhabitable over time. We are bombarded with advertisements to support healthy lifestyles by Fitness Centers, Diet Programs, and Pharmaceuticals; all attempting to convince us we ‘need their product to maintain health.’ Do you ever see the same philosophy applied to our marriages? Left without maintenance, they too will become unhealthy. Not once have I seen an advertisement directed toward building a healthy, strong and lasting marriage on the evening news, during Prime Time TV or as a sponsor for a major sports event! Why? Most likely because we take marriage for granted—and no one has figured out how to profit from healthy marriages. There is more money to be made in divorces. Lawyers, accountants and auctioneers benefit from divorces. Nobody makes a dime if you are blissfully married.
Chuck and Mae often open their mentoring sessions by describing marriage as something similar to that of preparing for a long flight. The flight ought to have a mechanically sound aircraft, and two pilots (God plus the husband and wife co-pilots) who cooperate with each other to follow the best flight plan laid out for them. They need to follow their checklists, practice emergency procedures and be prepared for the bad weather and emergencies Satan throws at them.
The purpose of The Marriage Journey is to share the flight patterns that create a strong, healthy and lasting marriage. (We like to call it the intercontinental flight.) It is designed for couples at any age or stage in their relationship. You can turn a good marriage into a great one, find hope in a struggling one, or take a great marriage to a deeper, more passionate level.
Welcome aboard! Sit back and enjoy your flight.
