This saying is popular and highly recommended.  No question lingers about its value, but we can help define the growth rates and expected outcomes.  “Together” may well mean different things to different folks, and growing is not likely to happen without some groaning with accompanying pains.

Grow

We have some “say” in our physical growth.  Mother’s milk sets that in motion and  we take that nutrition over with some level of wisdom. There are pandemic fatalities in the area of human physical development.  Growth is not without fatalities.  Some things we cherish will perish.

Growing

We are responsible for advancing our stature as imaginative workers and fun lovers. No growth in these aspects are signs of certain catastrophe. If you are a gardner, planting the same solitary fruit in exactly the same manner every season may feel like a comfortable mission, but doing so is blind to the wide world of fruit diversity, not to mention missing the potential of harvests feeding more people.

Growth

As much as we can and do increase the scope and rate of personal development we face the demands of decreasing the space between us and family  advancing our stature as imaginative workers and fun lovers.

People settle for the comfort  and placidity of togetherness. People think that personal goals and strides towards excellence should take a back seat to their spousal responsibilities. Since family is intended to reflect the creative, procreative and sovereign elements of divinity we can do ourselves a huge favour.  A spouse who decides all growing is over is a threat to togetherness and growth.

The whole creation groans

In many regards the expectations of a couple have a tough road to navigate, even with reasonable and regular discussions. People grow at different rates and healthy couple growth may need more than common faith. The passion and crucifixion of Christ contains the essential roadmap even though all they tell us when we get married is “for better or worse” and “until death parts us”. I like to think that none of us really gives up ourselves in order to have a married life. We, with difficulty, break with our parents, but a husband-to-be giving himself for his wife-to-be is rare if not unlikely. Like the heavenly Father who saw the potential in human beings before he created us, we can recognize that there is a whole lot of birthpang groaning involved in the arrival at love’s togetherness, whether that unity is the planet’s final destiny or a couple’s bliss.