From my dad: “This is the church where your mother and I got married.”
Okay so maybe he isn’t very poetic, and this picture doesn’t spark a hundred emotions within you like it does for me, but I know my dad’s big heart and this sure made me smile!
Just take another look at the picture, would you? Stare at it and pretend for a minute that the year is 1975. Imagine a youthful 16 year old redheaded bride standing next to her groom. Imagine wedding attendees standing on the sidewalk, witnessing the newly married couple and whispering as they speculated that this young duo wouldn’t stand a chance.
Present Day: When my parents are out exploring the world they often send me picture texts. I’m grateful for these snippets of life they share with me. More than that, I’m grateful that they keep on sharing life with each other.
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Marriage takes work you guys! I’m serious! Growing up I saw my parents in many seasons and learned how to live and love by watching them.
Throughout Mr. Awesome and I’s premarital counseling I claimed that my parents’ marriage wasn’t ideal, because I remember them bickering so much. I think I even said they laid the crappiest foundation they could for me, but on the plus side I knew everything I shouldn’t do in a marriage.
WHOA DUDE, I COULDN’T HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG!
Now that I’m nearing the 10 your mark in my own marriage I have to say that my parents’ marriage actually was extremely ideal. Yeah so they disagreed at times, and they bickered hardsometimes, and they didn’t always fight fair, but you know what they did do? They loved. They forgave. They made up. They stuck it out.
During a particularly hard season my parents split up and lived across town from each other. In that time I was so angry and I used every single chance I could to bash whichever parent I wasn’t currently with. I think I did that to get closer with the parent that I was physically with, so they’d feel like I was on their side. Except that didn’t work, you know why? Because they kept defending each other!!
Even though they weren’t communicating well with each other, they were communicating well to us kids that they were committed to each other, even when they slept in different beds and under different roofs.
I think being committed is more important that being madly in love. Let’s face it, in these past 9.5 years of marriage there have been dozens of times where romance hasn’t been what is holding us together. It’s been our commitment to God, and then to each other.
All that to say, THANKS Mom & Dad. The way you honor each other, even when it’s tough is absolutely beautiful, and has helped lay a remarkable foundation for my marriage.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32
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