There has been a lot of talk about weddings this month, hasn't there?
Let's face it--- it's wedding season. Everyone dreams of that beautiful summer wedding, and so everywhere you look it seems like someone is celebrating yet another wedding. I love a good wedding as much as the next girl... in fact you'll routinely find me binge watching 'Say Yes to the Dress'... but sometimes in all that glitz, all that glamour, all that excitement, the reason for the wedding gets lost... the MARRIAGE.
So today, let's talk marriage!
I was married at the ripe ol' age of 19. I didn't have that fancy wedding- planning a wedding when you're marrying into the military is tough... but that didn't matter to me. I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with my prince, and saw no reason to wait. To some degree, I knew that marriage was going to take work and would not be the fairy tale in the Disney movies I loved so much, but I must admit, at 19 years old, I still couldn't imagine everything life would eventually throw at us. And boy did it- we went through deployments, we were given a special needs child, we suffered pregnancy loss, we suffered mental health, we endured cross country moves, we survived recruiting duty (one of the most difficult jobs in the military), we went through loss of income... the list goes on and on and on. We have encountered so many obstacles in our 10.5 years or so of marriage that have torn apart even the strongest of relationships, and somehow we came through it together. I'm not saying we have a perfect marriage--- far from it, there are always places we need to work on. We're human. But today, I am sharing some things that I have personally learned about marriage.
The Reality of Happily Ever After.
Obviously, I'm a big fan of the fairy tale. I love those stories that end with a 'and they all lived happily ever after'. But that's not the reality. Marriage is wonderful and beautiful and good... but it's not all sunshine and roses every single day. You'll fight, you'll disagree, you'll face hard time. Marriage doesn't come wrapped in that tidy bow our favorite fairy tales end with. And that's OKAY! We just have to know that before we go in, so we can better handle it when those moments come.
Be Stubborn.
When people have asked how our marriage has survived all that we've seen and even just the fact that my husband and I are complete and total opposites.But one thing we have in common is our stubbornness. So even when things aren't going according to plan, we hang on and work it through. You need that in a marriage, or it can become too easy to walk away.
Fight For Each Other.
One of my favorite songs is Warren Beddingfield's 'Love Is Not a Fight'. There could never be a truer love song out there, 'Love is not a place To come and go as we please It's a house we enter in And then commit To never leave. Love is a shelter In a raging storm Love is peace In the middle of a war
If we try to leave May God send angels To guard the door No, love is not a fight But it's something worth fighting for.' Powerful words, aren't they? These are words that I try to live my marriage by. Even when we disagree, we're not going to let that be that. Again, I think that's where that stubbornness comes in to play!
Pray For Each Other.
If you can pray with your spouse, even better... but that's not always possible in all marriages. Instead, pray for your spouse and your marriage. Every single day. Prayer is such a powerful force, so why would you now want to have a little prayer power standing behind you?
Trust in God's Plan For Your Marriage.
That's a tough one, isn't it? I'm a planner. I like things to go my way. When I got married I had ideas of how things would be, and those plans might have changed ever so slightly over the years, but mostly stayed pretty well on track. Until they didn't. Sometimes you find yourself asking, 'THIS is God's plan? Why would He put us through this!?' Sometimes you just have to step back and remember those hard times are blessings in disguise and we just have to wait for His timing to make the reasons clearer. Put God at the center of your home, and when things get tough, remember He is there!
For keeping Christ in your home and marriage, Dayspring has many great wedding and anniversary (or just because) gifts to serve as daily reminders. It's amazing how a simple phrase like, 'Blessed and Grateful' can remind us as we go on about our day, just how blessed we are in our marriages and force us to stop and thank God for them!
Check out these other great wedding and anniversary gifts:
Are you a newlywed or a seasoned wife? What lessons have you learned from your own marriage or those around you?
Check out these other great wedding and anniversary gifts:
Are you a newlywed or a seasoned wife? What lessons have you learned from your own marriage or those around you?
My Husband and myself are like ya'll,we are complete opposites!We've had some ups and downs over the years,but we're still together after 38 years! To me like the old saying it takes two to make it!
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