The Spouse Trap

One of my favorite games growing up was one that I found in my grandmothers attic.  My sister and I were exploring one day and we found this amazing game that would have belonged to my mother and her siblings when they were young and living at home.  The same game exists today on store shelves with almost identical looking pieces.  The game is called Mouse Trap.

One thing that made this game so interesting to me as a boy was the fun of assembling each part of the elaborate trapping mechanism and the ultimate chain reaction that occurred when attempting to capture the mouse.  Each component was unique and creative but, standing alone, each piece would not have been enough to capture the mouse.

I think I want to write a book called "The Spouse Trap" How to Catch and Keep the Girl. Although not an original title, this slight variation from the fun board game of my youth would be a fun and catchy title.  I realize that spouse catching instead of mouse catching is hardly the same endeavor and is a crude way of talking about courtship and marriage and although I am not a proponent of trapping someone, I am interested in finding the necessary components.

Assembling all the components of good dating, courtship and marriage, is not an easy task.  Neither is finding and keeping an eternal companion.  It used to be that finding an eternal companion was the hard part, but with the ever increasing divorce rate, even in the church, it is clear that finding the right components to keep a marriage intact is more important than ever.

Assembling all the secrets, steps, keys, and pointers of a good marriage into one book would be difficult, if not impossible.  I think of my attempt at finding the many ingredients for a happy marriage more of a project than a manuscript.  And, for those of us who have been divorced, many of the lessons learned the hard way are some of the missing ingredients we lacked the first time around, and maybe they really can’t be learned from a book. 

Still, for me, looking for truth and writing down ideas have become a great source of inspiration and even revelation from God.  The very fact that I am searching for answers to tough questions and problems puts my mind and heart, if I am humble about it, in a better position to learn wisdom from on high about love and marriage. This inspiration if captured and retained in my heart will help me catch and keep the woman of my dreams.

Stay tuned for an excerpt from Chapter One:  To Try or Not To Try.