Time flies when you’re having fun. Nine years ago I married my PA high school sweetheart in the middle of a beautiful upstate NY snowstorm. A day later we flew to our honeymoon and a week later we moved to NC. It was a whirlwind then, but I wouldn’t change any of it.
Nine years, and we’ve never looked back. Many trials and two kids later, I’m happy and blessed and more in love than the day we met (in the back row of Mrs. Miller’s 11th grade health class).
On our wedding we got many wonderful gifts, cards, and well-wishes. However, the one that has stuck with me the most is a card with an essay from Barbara Cage. Each year I read back over this card and realize how much more true it all is with each and every passing day.
I hope this will bring you the same joyful encouragement it does to me all these years later.
Marriage is…
A commitment. Its success doesn’t depend on feelings, circumstances, or moods– but on two people who are loyal to each other and the vows they took on their wedding day…
Marriage is…
Hard work. It means chores, disagreements, misunderstandings, and times when you might not like each other very much. When you work at it together, it can be the greatest blessing in the world.
A relationship where two people must listen, compromise, and respect. It’s an arrangement that requires a multitude of decisions to be made together. Listening, respecting, and compromising go a long way toward keeping peace and harmony.
A union in which two people learn from their mistakes, accept each other’s faults, and willingly adjust behaviors that need to be changed. It’s caring enough about each other to work through disappointing and hurtful times, and believing in the love that brought you together in the first place.
Marriage is…
Patience and forgiveness. It’s being open and honest, thoughtful and kind. Marriage means talking things out, making necessary changes, and forgiving each other. It’s unconditional love at its most understanding and vulnerable– love that supports, comforts, and is determined to triumph over every challenge and adversity.
Marriage is a partnership of two unique people who bring out the very best in each other and who know that even though they are wonderful individuals… they are even better together.
~Barbara Cage
