Learning and Loving

It's been three years today since I said, "I do." I'm not really the same person I was then. I know three years doesn't seem like a long time. To most people we're still "newlyweds." But it seems like a long time to us. Not in a bad way, but I feel like we've accomplished something. I feel totally different than when we were first married. I feel like we're past all of the first year difficulties and confusions. I feel like I've learned a lot about who I am and who I'm not and who God made me to be, and I feel like my husband helps me be more of that person every day. I think one of the things I know the most about the two of us, one of the things I feel most confident about is that we make each other better, and that's the way God designed marriage to work. He meant for us to work each other's kinks out and to make us more into who He created us to be. Sometimes that's really painful and uncomfortable, but sometimes it's glorious.

On our anniversary today I don't want to over romanticize marriage because I've learned that marriage is not a fairy tale or a love story movie. There are times in our marriage I've thought, "I had no idea it would be this hard. No one told me about this." But I do believe it's better than the movies tell us about. It's a relationship that God uses to heal us and make us better. Sometimes it hurts more than anything else, but if you really work at it harder than you've worked at most things, you wake up everyday next to your best friend that gets you better than most people, who takes care of you when you're sick and snotty and still thinks you're beautiful, who knows your emotional baggage and issues and helps you deal with it and who promises to keep loving you no matter what. I think that's pretty amazing.

Today I feel so blessed that God helped us find each other. It's miraculous that He can join two broken, messed up people and that there can be love, laughter, peace and happiness. Marriage really is a testament to His awesomeness and love.