Marriage Is Best Where There Is Patience

 

Do you know what happens after you plant the seed of a Chinese Bamboo Tree?

Nothing. That's right. Absolutely nothing. For 4 years after planting the seed of this tree you get no satisfaction other than a tiny shoot coming out of a bulb. Must be something wrong, right? A still birth or stunted growth. A bad seed maybe.

If you didn't know about the growth patterns for this tree, you would think that all your efforts to plant and cultivate were useless.

But, in fact, what's happening all the time is that underneath the ground there's a massive root structure that's forming. You can't see it, but it's there and it's huge. Then, in the 5th year, the Chinese Bamboo Tree grows and grows and grows, sometimes up to eighty feet tall!

Marriages sometimes grow like Chinese Bamboo Trees. You try and try:

• doing kindnesses
• giving gifts, 
• being gentle
• sharing a joke

But sometimes it takes months, even years before you notice the growth. But all the while you're making deposits into a secret account that all of a sudden (that's the way it seems, but, in fact, my point is that it's not all of sudden) begins paying dividends.

It takes maturity to be patient. And it takes maturity to be willing to give your spouse the time they need to grow and to see that time as an opportunity for you to grow too.