“MARRIAGE ISN’T ALWAYS ABOUT BEING HAPPY. SOMETIMES IT’S JUST ABOUT BEING MARRIED”
Well this past week has been a bit of a doozy for us. After traveling for Christmas and then again for New Years, we were so excited to finally have a week at home and relax a bit and tackle a long house projects list. We had all kinds of house projects on the to-do list and were ready to tackle them! Bring it on! That’s when we hit a bump in the plan. I started coughing a bit on New Years Day but by that evening, I was pretty miserable. After realizing I wasn’t going to be able to kick whatever it was on my own., I finally ended up going to the doctors at the end of the week and I was diagnosed with Bronchitis (Yuck!) and was just grateful we caught it before it turned into Pnemonia. This then left Allen to tackle the entire project list alone (Boo, Hiss!). So needless to say, it was a long week and Allen has been such a blessing thru it all. I have had a loud barking cough, which turned into a deep obnoxious cough (all night long). Obviously that does not make for good white noise when sleeping, but Allen hasn’t complained one bit and hasn’t even booted me out of the bed to the couch. LOL. He has been so patient just plugging away at the lists and letting me lay on the couch during the day coughing obnoxiously, while he worked his tail off. This man! I am so blessed, I tell ya!
WAIT! IT GETS BETTER! To top it off, a few nights ago, he was folding the laundry (normally I do this, because he works 2 jobs and fixes all the cars and everything else-yes…we have our own personal superhero!), and he was trying to figure out whose jeans he was folding. He asked if they belonged to me or to my girls (now they are much tinier than me, but thank goodness, he doesn’t see the difference…beauty is in the eye of the beholder they say. ;-). The girls denied the jeans so I asked my sweet man what size they were. Once he realized they were my jeans, he quickly responded, “it says size Supermodel”. Ugh…not quite but doesn’t matter, because my heart melted at his love for me. Mission Accomplished! He is truly the sweetest and always knows just what to say to make me feel so loved. There I was laying on the couch, hadn’t brushed my hair all day, still in pajamas, with a pile of kleenexes, and cough meds by my side, hacking up a lung and the man thinks I’m a supermodel?! Such a gift he is! He has served me so lovingly this past week and truly given himself up for me when he could have been too busy on his to-do list to help take care of me, bring me dinner, run the kids around, etc. But instead he sweetly served me and loved on me, which also included back massages when I would begin coughing (since I have asthma, breathing is labored when I am sick. The back massages relax all the muscles and make breathing easier for me). So you get the idea but just wanted to say that this is the perfect representation of what marriage should be. That is loving each other FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE….IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH. And this is just how he’s always been! Now I will tell you, I am certain he doesn’t always “feel like it”. The man had to be tired of hearing me cough and watching me lay around all week, but instead of complaining, he chose to simply love me the following ways:
By Serving Me
By Encouraging Me &
By Being Patient With Me
This is just what love does, and let me tell you…I am always inspired to love him even more when he treats me like this. It blows my mind and makes me want to do whatever I can to serve and love him well also. That brings to mind a verse:
Romans 12:10: “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Outdo one another in showing honor”.
If this were always our mindset in our marriages, there were be far less problems and certainly far less divorces. So we just wanted to encourage you all that you’re not always going to be “Happy” in your marriage. Sometimes it’s just about being “Married” (a friend shared this recently but can’t recall where the quote came from) and honoring your vows by honoring each other. That eventually leads to happiness in your marriage also. So it’s a total win-win (even tho it’s seldom easy…the good stuff never is :-). So hang in there together and go “outdo one another in showing honor” and Stay Married!!! Happy New Year!
Cheering you on,
Allen & Carol
Allen and I had the most amazing weekend! We attended a marriage conference in Jacksonville Florida……….