The Polisher by Lisa Mick

           Marriage is like taking two rough rocks and placing them in a polisher and letting them rub together for a period of time.  What happens when they emerge from the polisher?  They are smooth and beautiful, but only because they have spent time together and removed all the rough ugly spots.   They become beautiful stones instead of rough rocks.  

            Marriage takes time, work and constant mixing together.  I have been married for 25 years.  Believe me, it takes work! While you are in the polisher there are many things that can go wrong with the process.  That is just like it is in marriage.  If the polisher has an issue, you have it fixed and the polishing starts over again.  Marriages have issues as well and the marriage has to be, in a sense, started over again.

            In my own marriage, we have been in the polisher many, many times.  We keep starting again and again but we don’t stop the mixing together process.  How we become stronger and smoother is by staying the course. 

            The Lord shows us many things throughout the years and we can either grow from His lessons or we can become stubborn and let them stop the process.  If we heed what His Word says then we become stronger and the marriage is blessed along the way.  The Lord showed me a passage several years ago.  Let me share it with you.

            Romans 14: 1-4:  Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.  One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.  The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him.  Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls.  And he will stand, for the LORD is able to make him stand. 

            This was an eye opener for me, because the Lord speaks to us through His Word and the Word sets us free.  I had not been accepting my husband for who he was.  Then God showed me this passage and it says God has accepted him.  Wow! Talk about spiritual discipline for me.  Who am I?  I can’t make him stand but it says the LORD is able to do it.  I asked forgiveness that day and set out to be put back in the polisher and let the Lord start another process.  Today we are smoother and more beautiful than ever.