Miscellaneous Thoughts about Marriage from the One-Year Mark

Zachary and I are back from the Lake of the Ozarks, and now that I’m caught up on my editing (though not my freelancing or housework), I have time for a quick blog. I feel like I can’t let our paper anniversary go by without musing a bit. 

(Disclaimer: all these musings refer to Christian marriage, which means a man and a woman who enter in a covenant to love each other with God’s love and stay faithful with God’s faithfulness until death, no matter what.)

Here’s what I wrote in my diary a few days ago:

We're not mad at each other. We're mad at the ticks.

1. One year is hardly any time at all.

2. The first year of marriage doesn’t have to be the hardest, despite what people say. (“Oh, you’re in your first year?” they say to me, nodding knowingly. “The first year is the worst.” I just nod politely.)

3. My mom often told me, “If you can get along with your siblings, you can get along with anyone,” and it’s true. So much of the first-year drama was avoided because Zachary and I are used to sharing space, time and compromises with family members.

4. Marry your best friend. Romance is wonderful, but most of your time spent together will just be hanging out.

5. The Bible (particularly the epistles, but also Revelation and all the books of prophecy) has a slew of new insights and instructions when you’re married.

6. Lyon’s Frozen Custard, and then a Pixar movie at the dollar theatre, is the best cheap date.

7. Covenant commitment is so, so wonderful. We know that we are together till death, no matter what.

Chillin' in Portland

8. “You’re right” are words that go a long way in most situations.

9. It’s really nice, despite the inconvenience, for a woman to take her husband’s name. Names are powerful, and sharing his strengthens the sense of oneness.

10. Marriage does not exist to make you happy. It is there to be a picture of Christ and the church, his bride— which is, by the way, much better than trying to be happy.

~~~