Sweet and Sour By Dr. Juan Harrison

Some combinations work.  Some don’t.  One of my standard favorites at my local Chinese restaurant is sweet and sour chicken.  I get just a dab of it so as to make room for all my other favorites.   Haven’t found much there I don’t like.  Throw in some crab salad to dull the sweetness just a tad, and I’m good.  Easy to please.

Sometimes my wife and I will get into a conversation about how so-and-so just seem like opposites, but they’ve made it last for 40-50 years.  Maybe opposites really do attract.  I’ve often wondered when folks are looking for a mate if it’s the apparently stronger, more outgoing person looking for someone who appears quieter and more reserved or is it the other way around as a shyer, lower keyed person feels attracted to someone more self-confident and even outspoken.

I think if given a chance, God knows what would best fit us for a helpmate.  He says He sees clearly through the glass while our human vision can be a little blurry when it comes to matters of the heart.  As I’m prone to say, it ain’t where you start that counts; it’s how you finish.  I suspect that a lot of us may owe Him a pretty penny for all the grace as He lubricated the marriage wheels, and each partner tried to find their niche, their slots on the wheel of love as it spun around.  The ones who seem to have been the wisest and more fortunate are the ones who really did try to let each partner utilize their strengths and accept a partner’s strengths in other areas to help fill in the wheel of fortune in their relationship.  Unfortunately, even sadly, many couples struggled to find the right combination that enables them to become the best version they could be while helping the partner become even more than they could have dreamed.  Like a good zipper sliding up and down between those little metal tracks smoothly, almost effortlessly, good marriages should grow and flourish as each partner finds their role and helps contribute maximum benefit to the relationship.

I’m the outgoing one who found the quieter, more reserved one fifty years ago at a Ranger baseball game.  I was turning thirty, home from the war, and thought maybe God wanted me to stay a bachelor.  Totally out of character, my future bride asked me out for a coke date and the rest is history.  In spite of me she has become a strong confident person who has discovered all kinds of strengths and skills hidden beneath that calm demeaner.  I frequently tell her she’s the best person I’ve ever known.  Sometimes she tells me I’m mean and I half-jokingly tell her, “Yeah and I’m good at it.”  That’s when I realize why God put this pot  of sweet and sour together.  He knew I’d need a lot of sweetening. 

 By Dr. Juan Harrison