A Memoir to Marriage!

My wife Sarah and I celebrated our first anniversary this last Sunday the 23rd!  It was awesome to share it with the church and take a moment to look back at all the year has held.  I thought it only fitting that I share these thoughts today:

Marriage.  It's that thing that we do.  Or that we at least try.
Some know it's not for them.  Some wait what seems an eternity.
Most of us jump right in, ready or not, to a life of living with another.
Marriage is grand and beautiful, it is wild, it is hard, it is work.
Some say it's bliss and the best--all about the romance and burning desire.
Many agree it's more about friendship and teamwork than hearts on fire.
So we each join our friend, get to know our friend, and do life with that friend.
Of course we're always hoping for a little "hearts on fire" here and there.

But sometimes we don't see the rest.
Marriage is also faith.  It is relationship.
It is hoping that there is something stronger keeping two together than the mere efforts of two flailing human hearts.
Engaged couples usually look at me blurry-eyed when I tell them:
God has to be first in your life together.
But it's true.
Marriage is about joining God just as much as we join each other.
It's only God that gets couples through the rough moments,
Through the surprises.  Through the never-thought-it-would-happen-to-us times.

Ultimately, as the two of us looked back, being married one year,
We saw how marriage at its best blends it all together:
Marriage IS a beautiful thing when it is
Faith and relationship with God,
Friendship and teamwork,
Hearts on fire and romance,
When it is fun, hard, challenging, rewarding,
When it surprises and blesses,
When it takes all we have, and gives us all we need,
When it is too stubborn to quit and too foolish to know better,
When it keeps saying yes, even when no is so much easier.

I believe this is what God had in mind--possibly with marriage and a  lot of other things too!

Here's to one year with my wife.  Thanks Sarah, thanks God, thanks family, friends, and church for holding us up, in prayer, and together!  And now...here's to day one of an entirely new year!


More to come!

Jason <><