Being a used car dealer on the side since 1996, I am familiar with the well-known Lemon Law in our country, the USA.  Basically, if you have repeated issues noted by your new car dealer over a certain period of time you are able to claim Lemon Law status and turn the car back in to the dealer.  It’s a bit more complicated, but you get the idea.

A car is a thing, a liability really.  It has no life of its own.  It cannot argue or complain, but it can be a complete headache or nightmare, depending on its reliability.  A car is an object of use, but truthfully, we must maintain it in order to sustain that ongoing use.  You must change the oil, rotate the tires, change the filters and have systems checked for a fully functional automobile.  And since their invention, they have become extremely complicated with computers and automated technology.

Marriage can be complicated as well.  Everyone has their own quirks, misfires and needed maintenance.  Marriage may not make it if it’s completely neglected.  As quickly as some couples divorce, I can only imagine they are enacting a, so to speak, marriage Lemon Law of their own creation, saying, “I have tried over and over and it just keeps breaking down.”  And then the proverbial, “I need to return it for a new one, a replacement.”

There is no Lemon Law for marriage and I am not proposing there should be one either.  In fact, I think just the opposite.  I believe we can enlist help for our own growth and then the growth of our marriage.  After years of marriage counseling and hearing couple after couple state that their marriage is failing miserably, I have come to realize another truth.  It is never the marriage in and of itself; it is the two persons in the marriage.

So, rather than enacting the Lemon Law for your marriage, why don’t you seek advice, counsel and input for your life.  Perhaps it’s not the marriage or your marriage partner, perhaps it’s you…?