30 Days of Praise - Day 26

Today I want to praise God for my marriage. Marriage is hard work, it's not a cake walk. All the TV and movie moments of "happily ever after" are fairy tales. And I think they are detrimental to marriages, because nobody really lives like that.

The divorce rate is so high, and I think at least in part, it is because of unrealistic expectations about what marriage is. It isn't the end prize, it is a process you enter into. It's a contract that you make with another person, choosing to partner with them in life, in raising (or not raising) a family together, building a home and a life together. In the case of Christian marriages (whether they start as such, or as in our case end up as such) they are more than contracts they are covenants, made with not only your chosen one, but also with God. I wish more people understood fully what it is to make such a covenant, and then perhaps instead of walking away when marriage gets hard or does not meet one's expectations, they would dig in and put forth the work and effort required to help the marriage succeed.

When two people are married they should be determined that nothing and no one will come between them, and they should be willing to do whatever it takes to strengthen their marriage. They should also be on the look out for those things that are a threat to it and building hedges of protection against those things.

I do not have a perfect marriage, there are things Neal does that drive me nuts or frustrate me, and I say confidently he would say the same thing about me. BUT I love him and am determined to be with him for the rest of our lives. It's WORTH the effort. The Lord once spoke to my heart that I have a "good marriage with great potential." Good marriages are hard to come by nowadays, so I am grateful for that, but even more I praise God that with His help our marriage has the potential to just get stronger and better. I know it is only because of the Lord I can say that, because He is the glue that holds us together. We made a promise not just to each other but to Him, if not on our wedding day (because we were not Christians then) on the days we chose to follow Christ. We promised to live our lives and our marriage His way.

Having said all that I am blessed that I am absolutely CRAZY about my wonderful husband. On top of being a good husband and a great dad, he is my very best friend. I don't just love him with that sweet sappy romantic love (I do, but not just that) I also LIKE him. He is a fun guy to be around with, I treasure those times we have to just be a couple. It is good to be married to someone I like and respect as a person. Not everyone has that luxury.

This weekend we are headed down to Long Beach for my 20 year high school reunion. Neal and I have been together for 19 of those 20 years since I graduated. (Married for 17 of them.) I'm going to the reunion, but the most exciting part for me is to steal away a couple of days to be with the man I love. He is a gift to me from God Himself, and I praise Him for giving me the most wonderful partner I could have asked for. Even if I may have to, at some point, come back and read this blog to remind myself how I really feel about him on one of those frustrating days. =)

I don't know if anyone ever really stops by to even read this blog, or comes for more than an occasional passing through, but if you have been Day 27 will be delayed because I won't be near a computer at all tomorrow, I'll be enjoying my life with the man I love.

(Jesus said) "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” Matthew 19:2-4