“A good wife always forgives her husband when she is wrong”.
~ Milton Berle
I had to laugh when I read this quote! We’ll be celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary in June this year. And this is pretty much the shortest version to a successful marriage you will ever get.
~ Milton Berle
I had to laugh when I read this quote! We’ll be celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary in June this year. And this is pretty much the shortest version to a successful marriage you will ever get.
I can still clearly remember my own naïve preconceived ideas of what I thought married life would be like (mainly based on novels and Hollywood love stories!). But after 15 years I can tell you it is NOTHING like what I once imagined. In reality it is more like a blind folded roller coaster ride…a scary, crazy, spine-tingling, yell from your tummy, thrilling fun ride. With the bizarre part of never knowing when you are going up and when you are coming down! And to top it off you always get some unexpected twists and turns on the ride, pretty much when you least expect them. So sometimes you find yourself in the midst of unexpected tears, and sometimes a swarm of butterflies surprise you and put a wide smile on your face.
I only learned to appreciate the unpredictability of this journey after a good couple of years!
A funeral can be a good place to get new perspective on marriages in general, or that is what I’ve learned recently. The pastor asked “what is the difference between humans loving each other, and God loving us?” The answer was so simple that I had to sit and think about it afterwards - We humans need a reason to love, while God just loves us because He is love! So why do marriages fall apart? Because we lose our reason to love. Our situation changes, and all of a sudden prince charming is not that charming anymore.
The first couple of years of our marriage was like a Red Bull roller coaster ride – extreme! (it was a 50/50 split between good and bad), giving us more than one ‘change of reason’. The reality of married life was nothing like the fairy tale imagined. Divorce was not likely (just because neither of us are quitters), but killing each other seemed like a good option on a couple of occasions (okay, maybe not that extreme!). Like a lot of so-called Christians, we both claimed to be followers of Jesus. But our life was just no reflection of that at all. Until both of us had an encounter (on separate occasions) with the real living God. Surrendering led us to make conscious changes, and one small change just automatically led to more changes, and the ripple effect of this was the beginning of a new chapter to our love story.
Our devotional serious “Love & Marriage” is not marriage counselling, nor a 10 point plan to a “happy ever after”, and definitely also not a quick fix to a broken marriage. What this is, is just me humbling myself before you, sharing a couple of important things I’ve learned over a period of 15 years of our adventure.
Do we have the perfect marriage? By far not if you judge it by the book, but to us it is more than perfect! So may this devotional guide you on your own journey in discovering your “perfect marriage”. And remember: Perfect is by no means faultless, but rather a good blend of mutual respect, love, trust and fantastic communication to figure out what works best for both of you to find the ultimate happiness whilst travelling through this life together!
We are starting on Monday 07 May 2018.
Be blessed
Yolandi
PS: Almost everyting shared can also be applied to your daily relationships with family and friends!
I only learned to appreciate the unpredictability of this journey after a good couple of years!
A funeral can be a good place to get new perspective on marriages in general, or that is what I’ve learned recently. The pastor asked “what is the difference between humans loving each other, and God loving us?” The answer was so simple that I had to sit and think about it afterwards - We humans need a reason to love, while God just loves us because He is love! So why do marriages fall apart? Because we lose our reason to love. Our situation changes, and all of a sudden prince charming is not that charming anymore.
The first couple of years of our marriage was like a Red Bull roller coaster ride – extreme! (it was a 50/50 split between good and bad), giving us more than one ‘change of reason’. The reality of married life was nothing like the fairy tale imagined. Divorce was not likely (just because neither of us are quitters), but killing each other seemed like a good option on a couple of occasions (okay, maybe not that extreme!). Like a lot of so-called Christians, we both claimed to be followers of Jesus. But our life was just no reflection of that at all. Until both of us had an encounter (on separate occasions) with the real living God. Surrendering led us to make conscious changes, and one small change just automatically led to more changes, and the ripple effect of this was the beginning of a new chapter to our love story.
Our devotional serious “Love & Marriage” is not marriage counselling, nor a 10 point plan to a “happy ever after”, and definitely also not a quick fix to a broken marriage. What this is, is just me humbling myself before you, sharing a couple of important things I’ve learned over a period of 15 years of our adventure.
Do we have the perfect marriage? By far not if you judge it by the book, but to us it is more than perfect! So may this devotional guide you on your own journey in discovering your “perfect marriage”. And remember: Perfect is by no means faultless, but rather a good blend of mutual respect, love, trust and fantastic communication to figure out what works best for both of you to find the ultimate happiness whilst travelling through this life together!
We are starting on Monday 07 May 2018.
Be blessed
Yolandi
PS: Almost everyting shared can also be applied to your daily relationships with family and friends!