Me: I see you found red gems.

Prodigal: Yes, I thought you said something about them.

Me: Yes, a story I heard. Those are not the exact gems but thanks for trying anyway.

This is from the book The Meaning of Marriage by Timothy Keller

Arvin Engelson, a fellow student with Kathy and me at seminary years ago, likened marriage to a gem tumbler. You put gems into the tumbler and they are brought into constructive, creative contact with each other. They knock the rough edges off of each other until each gem is smooth and beautiful. But if you don’t put a special compound into the tumbler with the gems, the stones will either bounce off of one another without any effects or may crack and shatter each other. The grinding compound in the gem tumbler is like God’s grace in a marriage. Without the power of grace, truth and love can’t be combined. Spouses either stay away from the truth–they “bounce off each other”– or else they attack one another and they shatter.

Grace can be tough. We long for grace every time we make a mistake but sometimes we want to prove we are right more than give grace. Thank God that He doesn’t always just prove He is right and instead gives us grace. The Lord forgives you and is working in your heart. Don’t close your heart up but instead open yourself up so that you may be able to determine how you can apply grace to yourself and to that other person.

Jennifer Van Allen

Proverbs 3:11-12

My son do not despise the LORD’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org