Imagine for a moment a cool breeze blowing across your neck, the warm sun radiating off your back, your love song playing on the radio, your lover’s arms wrapped around each other tightly, and you’re slowly dancing together in a shopping center parking lot. You look into each other’s eyes, and you just know that you want to be with this person for the rest of your life.
I still love my husband like I did when we first got together. It’s been ten years since I first felt that feeling. We were just barely out of high school and had our first son. We’ve been together through thick and through thin. We’ve had some tough times, but we’re still together through it all. We argue about the minor things just as adamantly as the major things. We are the typical young couple that either loves or hates each other at any given moment. We have had those little moments like the one in the parking lot when I knew I wanted to be with him forever, or where he sees me fall asleep exhausted from a long day and covers me with a blanket. We’ve also had some maliciously drawn out fights where we wouldn’t speak afterwards for weeks on end.
Just recently, I went to spend some time with my grandfather while he was in the hospital. It was a Sunday morning, so I brought my Bible for us to do devotionals together. While we were reading, we discussed how difficult it is to be married. He has been married to my grandmother for fifty-nine years and has a lot of wisdom to share. Like most couples, they also have had their disagreements. They get quiet, leave each other alone, go to bed, and talk about it the next day. He said that the secret to a happy marriage is to love each other; as it says, in I Corinthians 13:4-7 RSV, “Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.” He told me that it will always be difficult in such a divorce accepting world. In today’s society, it seems as though we can just give up, try again with someone else, and no one will turn his or her head. My grandfather encouraged me to be a Godly wife regardless of how angry either of us may get. I know that we are not perfect, and that I cannot expect every day to be a good day. I am hopeful that the future will see my husband and me still together and just as passionately in love as we are now. I believe in marriage, and I believe in my marriage.