Tuesday, March 29, 2011

The Joy of Marriage

Alex and I spent the most amazing weekend together. I would definitely place it as the best weekend of 2011 and in the top 5 of our marriage together. I am a bit sad that it's Monday and our beautiful weekend is over, but I have stored its memory into my heart to think back on fondly in the coming future.

To begin with, we attended a marriage retreat with our church, Southgate, which took us all the way to Roseland, IN (best known for its rediculous nonsense involving a 3 person town council where 2 of the 3 were a married couple bent on owning that little town), where we checked into the Comfort Suites Hotel for one single night. We had dinner at the Ho Ping House, which isn't the best place to eat, but wasn't terrible. Later we discovered that we had accidently left our leftovers in the refrigerator in our room.

There was a guest speaker, who's message detailed the 5 things that cause couples to break up - in his experience. Communication, finances, sex (a lack of), unfaithfulness and a lack of faith. And we heard from several couples in our congregation and watched a couple videos, and I started to feel very secure and delighted in my marriage.

To begin with, I was fortunate enough to marry a talker. Sometimes he talks to a fault and I get annoyed because I am actually not much of a talker. I am more of a thinker. Our communication is pretty much.... excellent. If anyone is at fault for bad communication in our marriage, it definitely isn't Alex. (It would be me, bottling up my anger and irateness, which is what I do, which is what he is trying to change.) And Alex was fortunate enough to marry a red-headed spitfire. Not all women are as adventurous as I in the bedroom. Lucky, lucky man. ;)

Our finances are better now that I'm working again, and it would take wild horses to drag either one of us away from the other toward unfaithfulness. And we have a very Christ-centered marriage. The Fearsome Five things that break couples apart are of NO consequence in this marriage!

But what made me feel secure was to hear different couples, many who have been married for many years, say that they felt the strains of marriage very early - some just 2 to 3 months into their marriages. They felt like 'Good God, what the hell did I sign up for? And who is this stranger I'm married to?' And I just want to say that on May 19 Alex and I will celebrate 5 years of marriage and I have never once felt that way. My husband really and truly is the same person now as he was when we were dating and engaged. He has never changed on me, or shown a side of himself that I wasn't aware of before we tied the knot. I am as happy and in love with my husband now, 5 years later, as I was on our wedding day. Yes, we've had fights and arguements, some that lasted for hours, even days. But our marriage is so strong, and I feel so secure in it, with Alex.

Of course, we don't have any children either.... but let's cross that bridge when we come to it. :)

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