It took Solomon another thirteen years to finish building his own palace complex.
-1 Kings 7:1

A while back, I participated a couple of times, in a bible journaling meeting held at the local coffee speak-easy. One particular time, a Bible verse jumped out at me as I read. Well, it seemed plain enough. I mean, the Bible is full of all kinds of facts and figures about things that are seemingly regular and unimportant. But, then again, that revelatory component to the word can flash bright anywhere God wants it to. In this case, it was 1 Kings 7:1.

I was immediately reminded of my marriage. To that point, it had taken 14 years to build. However, Solomon and I are quite a bit different in our approach.

The word says that Solomon used high grade materials to build his palace. I mean, the stone was perfectly and fastidiously cut to exacting specifications. Every tiny detail was painstakingly looked after. Every component of his palace was a thing of function and purpose; dedicated to God. The word says he spared no expense.

Not me. Nope. Sure, I had God’s blueprints for my marriage when the construction began but it didn’t take long for me to decide to modify those plans a bit. I used bargain-basement materials and fly-by-night construction techniques, not to mention cheap tools that would break under normal conditions. I estimated measurements haphazardly and gave little mind to the long-term stability of the structure. There were stairways that went nowhere and there were rooms without windows. Indeed, I even built entire rooms that weren’t on the blueprints at all.

Earthquakes shook, floodwaters rose and storms surged. The palace nearly succumbed to the onslaught. Luckily, I still had those old blueprints in my back pocket.