Why I Still Believe in Marriage

This post is part of the Happy Wives Club Blog Tour which I am delighted to be a part of along with hundreds of inspiring bloggers. To learn more and join us, CLICK HERE! 

I am excited to share this with you today…if you haven’t visited The Happy Wives Club then you are missing out. I met Fawn at Allume in October and she is a jewel! I don’t know why I didn’t get a picture with her…I love taking pics of other bloggers and authors that I get to chat with. And we were in a photography class together. But anyway…hope to visit with her again one day.

Marriage…every little girl’s dream. She plans her wedding at a young age and never lets go of those dreams. As she grows, she continues to dream about what her wedding will be like. It is the wedding that we often dream about, isn’t it?

We read all about fairy tales growing up…Prince Charming rescuing you. Riding in on a white horse and living happily ever after. Girls dream about being noticed by a prince in another country and becoming a princess. Sometimes your nickname is “princess”.

Little girls seem to dream about this their whole life.

“….and they lived happily ever after” rings in your ear.

And then you meet your Prince Charming. You get to know each other and fall in love. You get married and work on that dream wedding you always planned. Only you didn’t think about money when you are little. Who talked about money in fairy tales anyway? There were fairy godmothers for that sort of stuff. So it starts with your wedding not being quite what you dreamed about. A little disappointment sets in. {I was blessed with a wonderful wedding so no disappointment there}

Honeymoon, settling in your home and setting up house. Life goes swimmingly along. Until…

Life sets in. Real life. Bills, jobs, daily things that get on your nerves and your first argument.

[tweetthis]You never thought you would fight, did you? You weren’t going to be like other couples you knew. Not you two.[/tweetthis]

And as life goes on, you sail along smoothly at times and then ride the roller coaster where you hang on for dear life and wonder if you will survive. You have to go back to your roots and what brought you together. You go back to the wonderful times of dating and the butterflies floating around in your stomach. You long for those days.

But you have found something much deeper. A love that runs deep and commitment that keeps you together. I remember someone told me that there will be a time that you stay together because of the commitment you made to God and each other, not because you feel all lovey-dovey. In my naive days, I thought…how crazy is that?  I found that to come true.

Extremely hard trials with extended family members threatened our love and our foundation. Made me question… is this worth it? Is this what I signed up for? Loving someone and being there for someone who has been so very deeply wounded and has no one but you to share the heartache and wide range of emotions with is not easy. You can’t do it alone. Don’t even try. It doesn’t help when those same people try to convince him that he was better off without you.

Love. Commitment. Total dependence on God sees you through each desperate moment.

Marriage gets a bad rap these days. Men are portrayed as blundering idiots by the world. But the world isn’t our standard. God brought us together and said that it is not good that man should be alone. I am thankful for my husband and our love.

Has it been easy? No. Have we had wonderful memories? Absolutely yes…and two precious sons as well! Have we grown and changed? Yes, so much. Do I look forward to the years ahead? I sure do!

In the midst of the trials that I often thought was just too much and I couldn’t take it, I learned a lot and I still have a lot to learn.

[tweetthis]I learned that marriage is hard. It isn’t for wimps[/tweetthis].

Much like parenting isn’t for wimps. There are hard days and you both have to give 100%. Marriage isn’t the fairy tale that you read as a little girl. It takes work.

But the rewards are wonderful! It is amazing to have someone who knows the good, bad and ugly about you and still loves you anyway. Someone who sees the bad hair days, no makeup, sweats , holds your hair back as you throw up, holds your hand as you give birth, helps you in the middle of the night with the baby so you can sleep, goes to the store for your favorite food, sacrifices so much and works so hard to provide for you and the children, goes shopping with you or places that he could care less about but loves you and wants to be with you.

It is great to have someone who doesn’t come home from work and sit in front of the TV all night but spends his evening helping you because you had a long day too. Dishes, laundry, cleaning…you all work together because you both give 100% and don’t take turns or pretend you didn’t see something to see who will do the job first.

There is nothing like having a shoulder to cry on when you have had a bad day and a man who prays with you and leads and guides you. Who listens to your fears and your dreams. A man who is excited about what you do and where God is leading your life and your business that you do from home.

A man who stands with you as you raise your children together and go against the tide of the world. Someone who spends time on his knees with you to pray circles around your home and family and future generations.

It is wonderful to have someone by your side who loves you for all your flaws. Someone who plans to spend the rest of his life with you. Divorce isn’t an option. It was never on the table. No matter how hard the enemy fought to make that happen and destroy you both.

We have been married almost 15 years. We have been through trials…emotional and financial. Failed business. Thriving business. Changes in family dynamics. But we did it together. We have grown and laughed and cried and hurt till our hearts thought they would break.

A seed was planted in my 13 year old heart the day I met the guy who would one day become my husband. A seed that has become a plant that has grown and flourished. It has been threatened at times to be cut down and starved. But it is growing every day. We are growing every day. Deeper in love and connection. I love this man of mine and am thankful that God brought us together 15 years ago.

Those are just a few of the reasons that I believe in marriage. Ignore the world. Ignore the media who tells you marriage is for the birds. Ignore the government who wants to penalize you with taxes because you are following God’s way. I am so blessed in my life. It hasn’t been easy…who has had an easy road? We are all on a journey.

[tweetthis]True love is better than any soap opera, cheap book or sappy stories. The real thing is worth it.[/tweetthis]

People tell you it doesn’t exist. It does.

I am so excited to read Fawn’s new book…she traveled all over the world!

This video will help you see the mission of this book and the heart of the writer ~
http://youtu.be/f-LWUa_pnr0

{If reading in an email, click here to see it}

Book Details

Fawn Weaver was a happily married woman running a successful business—and then something happened. Maybe it was divorce rate reports on the evening news, The Real Housewives of Orange County, or any daytime talk show where husbands and wives dramatically reveal their betrayals. Everywhere she looked, Fawn saw negative portrayals of marriage dominating the airwaves and dooming everyone to failure. Looking at Keith, the love of her life, she knew that wasn’t true. She was determined to find and connect with women just like her—happy and optimistic about marriage, deeply in love with her spouse, and committed to building a strong marriage that stands the test of time. On a whim, she started the blog HappyWivesClub.com and sent the link to 5 friends. What started as a casual invitation to five women exploded into an international online club with 150,000 members in more than 100 countries. Happy Wives Club is Fawn’s journey across the world to meet new friends and discover what makes their marriages great. Join her on this exciting, exotic trip across six continents and through more than eighteen cities. Walk the streets of Mauritius, the historic ruins in Italy, and the vistas of New Zealand and Australia. Go from Cape Town to London, Manila to Buenos Aires, Winnipeg to Zagreb. Along the way, you will meet everyday women whose marriage secrets span cultures. You will hear their stories, witness their love, and be inspired by the proof that happy, healthy marriages do exist—and yours can be one of them! It turns out great marriages are all around us—when we look for them. Go on a trip with Fawn and learn the best marriage secrets the world has to offer.
Fawn Weaver, the founder of the Happy Wives Club wrote a book about the best marriage secrets the world has to offer. They say the book is like “Eat, Pray, Love meets The 5 Love Languages.” I say the book is inspiring. You can grab a copy HERE.

 

Linking up at A Mama’s Story, The Modest Mom, Growing Home, Time-Warp Wife, Far Above Rubies, Raising Arrows, A Wise Woman Builds Her Home, Raising Homemakers, Raising Mighty Arrows & Missional Women.