GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 6:21
Marital Conflict
Alice and I are looking forward to our 64th wedding anniversary in just a few days. I met Alice on a blind date arranged by my friend, who also knew Alice. I don’t think either of us expected that first date to lead to another, then another, and so on. We dated through our high school years and were married on Saturday evening, June 17, 1961.
Alice was raised, catechized, and confirmed in Hope Lutheran Church in Granite City, Illinois. I was raised at Tri City Park Assemblies of God across town. Alice began attending TCP with me on Sunday evenings. She liked the music and knew many of the young people our own age. We became involved in many of the activities of the large youth group at TCP, and Alice eventually became a regular attendee. TCP Pastor R.D. Shaw performed our marriage ceremony.
I recently told someone that it took me sixty years to learn how to be a husband, so the last four years have been smooth—a pretty steep learning curve and a bit of hyperbole! I did learn early, however, that Alice is a determined woman who knows what she wants. I, on the other hand, was accustomed to pretty much going my own way. Now we had to combine those two personalities. Sure, there were marital differences, but we discovered mutually agreeable ways to work through those rough spots.
There was a giant marital conflict in Herod Antipas’ marriage. Herod met John the Baptist, who told him repeatedly that his marriage to Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife—whom Herod had seduced and persuaded to leave her husband in Rome and return to Palestine with him—was unlawful and violated the Jewish Levitical law. Herod seems to have developed a reluctant admiration for John and apparently had several visits with him. Herodias, on the other hand, hated John and wished to kill him. Mark wrote, “And an opportune day arrived, when Herod on his birthday made a banquet for his great men, and his military commanders, and the leading men of Galilee.” (Mark 6:21) Herodias saw her opportunity to exact her revenge on John the Baptist on a day when Herod desired to celebrate his birthday with a banquet for his military commanders and nobles. Murder versus celebration—that is a marital conflict.
Successfully married couples develop methods for resolving marital conflicts. The methods differ from couple to couple. Successful methods produce happy, enduring marriages.
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