Marriage...Beginning Our Sunset Years...

Marriage Is......

It is sharing and caring, 
Giving and forgiving,
Loving and being loved,
Walking hand in hand
 

Talking heart to heart,
Seeing through each other's eyes,
Laughing together,
Weeping together,
Praying together
 

And always trusting and believing
And thanking God for each other.
For love that is shared is a beautiful thing
It enriches the soul and makes the heart sing.

Helen Steiner Rice

Today is our anniversary, we have been married for 31 years, but actually we have been together for 36 years.  That is a very long time in todays world-which is full of divorce.  At our ages, (54 and 48-almost 49) we are working towards our older years, thus coming what is known as the sunset years.

Here we are -as we looked when we 'met' all those years ago...

I always wondered how people stayed together for so long, and it seems like -wow-how quickly I am 'there'.  Our lives are not perfect, we are not perfect, but what we do have is commitment.

   The other reason we have stayed together for so long is our commitment to YHWH / GOD -and HIS ways.

There are actually 3 of us in the marriage-me, Scott and GOD.  That is the big 'secret' to making any marriage work.  If your selfish and only thinking of yourself, and not the other person, your marriage will fail.  If you do not keep yourself only unto your spouse, your marriage will fail.  Do not look at others and think-if only my spouse was like that, or looked like that...Accept your spouse with out any conditions to change.  Have good listening skills and be ready to say your sorry, then say it and mean it.  Dont say I am sorry, but  (we call it leaving the butt out-I guess that could be considered mooning to leave the butt out! So don't moon your spouse when your sorry!)  So just say those 3 little words-I am sorry- and adding -it was my fault --is a good thing too.!

Sometimes when our children listen to us talk, they get frustrated with how we communicate, but for us-it works.  Again, we are not perfect, but we love each other, so we will keep going in our relationship.

I love my husband, can not imagine life with out him.  As we grow older, the love is not the same as when you are first together, nor is it the same as those first few years.  It becomes a deeper love, with a knowledge that you can not really explain-just need to experience.