Anniversaries are for celebrating!
And today I celebrate MINE! 13 years of marriage. Not all bliss. But mostly pretty awesome. Not because everything is perfect all the time, but because we’ve been growing and struggling together for almost almost half our lives.
Each year we make it a priority to get away for at least one night to celebrate our marriage. It’s never easy, but it’s always worth it.
Notice that word- Priority.
If I had to choose ONE word to describe how marriages lose their spark and grandeur priority is the word I would choose.
We get busy with careers and kids and travel and taking care of homes and busy day to day chores and suddenly we’re spending NO one on one quality time with our spouses. We’re tired. Really tired.
And then our kids grow up and move out and we retire from our jobs and what’s left?
How is it that the most intimate human relationship is put on hold and expected to not only survive, but thrive when we put nothing into it?
If I’ve learned nothing else from Coach Debbie after the loss of her husband, Aaron it’s this “take the trip, do the thing”.
I’ve also witnessed that the couples I know that have the most joyful marriages are those who have made time for one another even in the hardest of seasons. They’ve risen before dawn to walk the neighborhood hand in hand or staged candle light dinners in their living rooms while babies slept upstairs. The priority never changed even when the circumstances did.
And it’s hard. It’s really hard.
There are nights when my husband and I just want to fall into bed. And occasionally we do. BUT. We try to share a few moments of intimacy (not necessarily the physical kind) each and every day. It’s what keeps the spark alive.
If God created us to spend our lives in this relationship, then it deserves our attention and our time. It’s those small moments that keep it going when date nights and movie nights and getaways are scarce.
But. On your anniversary. Once per year. Do something special. Celebrate big. Buy the champagne. Eat the lobster. Go for a ride in a speed boat. Spend all day laying in a hammock together. Go for a long romantic walk. Repeat your first date. Reminisce. Dream. Enjoy one another and the special gift the Lord has given you.