Anniversaries.

I love anniversaries...always have and probably always will...and I don't just mean my own.  I mean other peoples!  I love celebrating marriages...especially another year of a marriage fulfilled!  I mean especially with the statistics these days..what is it 50% or 55% of marriages end in divorce??  So shouldn't we celebrate a marriage that has lasted through the years...shiouldn't we celebrate the 50% or the 45% that last?  and shouldn't we then make a big deal about anniversaries?  Well I think so..

And my parents celebrated their 32nd wedding anniversary on April 7th.  I made sure I sent them a card to mark this said milestone...32 years married, and 36 years together I think my dad said.  That is more than half their lives spent together!  Imagine how well they must know each other...imagine how hard some of those married moments must have been...and now imagine the beautiful story they have created together.

Now that I have been married 1.8 years I do know a thing or two about marriage.  And one thing I DO know is that it isn't easy!  So for all those single ladies out there (or pre-married ones) who think that getting married will solve all your problems - please keep in mind that it might not and it just might create new ones!!  So it isn't easy and it is alot of work, but the work is so very worth it! 

And when I think about the WORK that has happened in our marriage I think about the work that I have done personally!  People - I am so controlling and I can be soo conniving and manipulative!  And that is something I never recognized before being married.  I also never realized how hard it is for me to serve without praise and acknowledgement.  And I can be soo mean to Peter sometimes...gosh my poor, poor husband.  I raise my voice at him.  I talk back to him.  I belittle him.  And it doesn't happen all the time, but let me tell you it happens more than I want it to.  And I find myself emberassed by the woman that I turn into...by the words that spew out of my mouth...by the tone that I say said words in! 

And I truly thank God that He has filled my husband with soo much grace, an unending spirit of forgiveness, and a desire for reconciliation because I truly do not know where we would be without that!  Marriage is alot of work, don't forget that, but that work is so worth it and the love and the memories that come from that work are truly priceless.

My hope and prayer is that Peter and I live long enough to celebrate 32 years of wedded bliss.  My hope and prayer is that we love each other as deeply as my parents have loved each other.  My hope and prayer is that together we can create a legacy and a foundation of faith, hope and love.