As I said in the preceding devotion: When isolation appears in a marriage, it is symbolized by certain examples or signs. Here are a few more I've observed.The locked door. Bill and Teresa have only been married for six months, but they have already hurt each other deeply. Their dreams and hopes of intimacy are already fading in the darkness behind locked doors where they have withdrawn. Bill was able to open up during the engagement, but now he finds it difficult to share his feelings. Teresa craves intimacy and desperately wants to be his partner in life. She can't get in, and he won't come out.
Excess baggage. Because both Bob and Jan came from broken homes, they were determined their marriage would be different. Although they have talked about their parents' divorces, neither has grasped the impact the breakups had on them. Without the model of a good marriage embedded in their minds, they are unaware of how much excess baggage they carry.
The TV dinner. Walter and Jeanne both work some distance from their suburban home, so when they arrive home they have fought rush-hour traffic after a long workday. They collapse in front of the television, eating TV dinners while watching the weekly sitcoms.
Their five-year marriage isn't in trouble, but later, after they start having children, she'll feel she's become a widow to a seasonal selection of football, baseball and basketball, not to mention his hobbies of golf, fishing and hunting. She's lonely. And he doesn't even know it.