Yesterday’s background photo featured hubby’s chainsaw sitting atop the stump of one of the massive hemlocks we had taken down this summer. If you take a second look at that photo you will notice the huge stump dwarfs the size of the blade on hubby’s chainsaw.
In today’s background photo you can see the different rounds which hubby sawed from the felled tree. They are massively large rounds … and by comparison, hubby’s chainsaw blade is only 16”. The chainsaw blade is not long enough to cut all the way through those logs.
In order to cut the tree trunk into rounds, hubby had to do what he could with what he had … he sawed halfway through on one side … then rolled the huge log over, to saw a little bit more … then rolled the huge log over, to saw a little bit more … until he eventually made it all the way through the huge log.
The result was log rounds whose surfaces are not even or straight or smooth. Take a look again at today’s background photo. Can you see how those log rounds were cut with a small blade in multiple different attempts.
The log rounds might not look pretty … but that’s not the point. Hubby wasn’t sawing the log rounds to compare or compete with someone else’s log rounds. He was sawing them so that they would fit up on the log-splitter, so we could split them into firewood.
When it comes to marriage, or to our relationships in general, we might look at other people’s marriages (or relationships) and feel like theirs is so “perfect.” Just like hubby and I could look at the log rounds which the tree-felling-dudes sawed … those were perfect! The tree-felling-dudes had huge beastly chainsaws which could saw through the biggest of tree trunks!
But hubby does not have a huge beastly chainsaw. In the same way, neither does everyone have the same “tools” when it comes to marriage/relationships.
Perhaps you might not have had any good examples of what a strong healthy marriage looks like. Perhaps you might have only ever seen fractured, dysfunctional marriages. Or perhaps you might not have had any good examples of what healthy parenting looks like.
It’s ok. All God asks is that you do what you can with what you have. Give your very best effort to your marriage (or to parenting … or whatever the relationship).
The 16” chainsaw which hubby has might not have made perfect cuts, but it got the job done. The same is true in our lives when it comes to our relationships. We might not do everything “perfectly” … but we can use what we have, and get the job done anyway.
God has given everyone different skills, different strengths, different abilities. God has given everyone different upbringings … different backgrounds … different life experiences, which have shaped us to be who we are. God knows our weaknesses. He knows our limitations.
All that He asks is that we be faithful with what we’ve been given. And He will help us with the rest!
Do what you can with what you’ve got.
