It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, but somehow through all the times we have stayed together. In our 5 long yet short years together I've learned one thing over and over: marriage is hard, REALLY hard. The difficult kind of hard you don't understand until you've experienced it.
Before getting married I used to think it looked so easy and fun. All you had to do was be in love and life would be grand. From the outside marriage can look easy and wonderful, and it can be both of those things, but it isn't those things all the time unless you really work at it all the time. Yes, love makes marriage good but it is not the only ingredient to a great married life.
I find that when I'm not willing to forgive like Jesus forgives me, when I'm not willing to listen like Jesus listens to me, and when I'm not willing to be like Jesus is to me in my relationship with my husband, our marriage goes through the worst of times. When I do the opposite, and I treat my marriage as Jesus expects me to treat it, we have the best of times.
The truth is, it is so much easier to walk away when tough times come than it is to stay and figure things out. During a fight, I am way more likely to shut down and leave the conversation than to talk until things are resolved. What can I say, I like to be right. Unfortunately, liking to be right all of the time is really wrong. Still working on that. It's been a 5 year project.
Even though it's been hard, it has also been really good to us. 3 kids in less than 4 years type of good. We've built a nice little family. Good things have come from our sometimes dysfunctional marriage.
So happy 5 years honey! Let's work on 70 more!
Cheers to finding the good stuff in marriage!
