WFMW: Marriage Advice

I've been cleaning out some boxes lately and have had fun looking at things that I didn't remember I had.  Among them was a box given to me at a wedding shower. In it were cards full of marriage advice. I read a lot of them again, but there was one that I did not need to reread.  It was the one that has stuck with me through our marriage.  I partly laughed when I got the card and partly thought, "that's an odd piece of advice."  Oddly enough, it's the one piece of advice that I go back to regularly.

The card said something along these lines (I don't remember the exact wording):
When you have an argument with your husband, remember two things:
1. You married a boy and
2.  Remember how you felt on your wedding day.

I honestly didn't have a clue how good that advice was until I got into the trenches of marriage.  This was before Love and Respect, blue glasses, pink earphones, etc.  Jamison is a boy and that accounts for a lot of our differences when we are fighting, I mean having "intense fellowship" as a friend of mine would call it.

The other piece of advice is invaluable. I know I am not alone in saying that marriage is H-A-R-D.  My pastor said that once and I am convinced he sugar coated it.  Marriage is a gazillion times harder than I ever imagined it to be. Perhaps that is because God wants to make me holy, not happy (thanks for that quote Gary Thomas!)

This is what I can say though, no matter how mad I get, no matter how many times I want to throw in the towel, no matter how much Jamison infuriates me, I can go back to my wedding day.  All on that day was right; all was good; it was the way things were meant to be.  I knew that I knew that I knew that I knew that Jamison was and still is the one that the Lord had for me.

I remember standing at the back of the church with my daddy.  It is the one time in my life that I have been completely and totally overwhelmed by the presence of the Lord. I remember thinking that I was standing on Holy ground. I remember it vividly. I remember getting to the end of the aisle and the pastor saying, "it's almost as if you can hear the rustle of angel's wings."  It was sacred. It was Holy.  I can say, my marriage is exactly what the Lord intended for me. Without a doubt.

Even when I doubt because I am tired, worn out, or just simply being hard headed, if I go back to that day, I remember all that I am committed to.  I remember that my marriage is a reflection of the Lord.  That the Lord wants our marriage to succeed and that it is worth fighting for.  It is worth battling out and not giving up.

I am so thankful for the advice, but more thankful for the incredible husband and marriage the Lord has blessed me with.

What marriage advice works for you?

Linking up at We Are That Family, Works for Me Wednesday.