Yesterday was my 36th wedding anniversary. It’s crazy to think that that I have lived with Daren even longer than the age I was when I had my youngest child Kailee. Marriage is like a Merry-Go-Round. You get on , hold on tight and where it stops is often an indication of your inner spiritual strength.
We get married for lots of reasons, each reason is important enough to make this life changing, life altering decision. When it’s the first time, you honestly have no idea the ride it will take you on. For me, the reasons were very spiritually rooted and had everything to do with loving & trusting God enough to know that eventually I could learn to love this person almost as much as I loved HIM.
In doing research on the number 36 I have learned these incredibly important things: The number 36 represents enlightening your spirit with love & peace and surrounding yourself with people who bring out the best in you physically, emotionally and spiritually. I believe that my number one goal for my marriage this year is spiritual enlightenment which has everything to do with keeping your covenants.
When I went through the temple for the first time as a 21 year old very naive and very impressionable young girl, I had no idea the road it would take me on. I thought that once I made this life changing decision that it would be easier. It wasn’t easier at all. Daren & I have extremely strong personalities & we can butt heads to say the least on so many levels. However, through 36 years of watching this incredible man that I am married to become more, humble, more teachable, more loving, & more kind, I know that covenants are real. They’re so individual, but are also bound with eternal principles, marriage being one of them.
I’m a true believer that the Lord teaches line upon line, precept upon precept. For the sole reason that marriage, like any other commitment, requires a lot of hard work. Anything that you work hard at and are committed to, eventually will bring positive results. It’s in remembering that life is complicated & eternal principles are learned through obedience and holding on to the iron rod. There are going to be days that really are going to be downright MESSY.
I believe that besides our relationship with God, our relationship with our eternal companion should be the one that we treasure the most. By small & simple things, great things shall come to pass. My marriage to Daren is by far the greatest investment that I have ever made. Because the investment is so great, the road can be treacherous at times. But it is through the gut wrenching, pain defying moments that test our love, that we truly know if it can stand the test of time.
Love is patient, love is kind, love is forgiving & love can be blind. But love at it’s best can outweigh all the rest. It’s constant & true and it can withstand the storms and the set-backs that are a part of LIFE. I have learned that some of my most growing experiences come when God just lets it rain. The good news is: After the rain comes rainbows & rainbows are one of God’s most beautiful creations.
I already know that 2020 is going to be hard, I can feel it in every fiber of my being. But the hard part only comes when we try to do it alone. When we can clasp hand in hand and hold on tight, the Merry-GO-Round becomes an adventure, instead of a soul searching & sometimes painful experience.
I think my goal for 2020 is to just try & enjoy the ride, and if the road gets rocky, we can both learn to either remove the rocks, go around them, or maybe on the really good days, just learn to drill a hole right through them. And just for today, knowing that God does love me & he does love Him, is enough to get me through the next hopefully thirty more years doing this thing “AMAZING THING” called MARRIAGE.
<3 Heart Strings <3 