So this year for my annual anniversary of our first date post, I thought I’d talk about challenges because it seems like Sara and I have been going through an awful lot of them lately. I don’t really want to publicly go through the details of them, but they’ve definitely had a very profound affect on our lives in the last couple of years, to the point where we’ve found ourselves having to rethink some of our plans for the near future to accommodate these problems that we’re facing. In the last couple of weeks, in particular, all of the chaos has really been taking its toll on me and I’ve been trying to figure out how to deal with all of these issues without resorting to arguments and fights…
I was kind of surprised when I came across an old copy of our wedding ceremony from a few years back … because part of it even specifically made mention of the kinds of challenges that we find ourselves facing today:
[excerpt] Charge to the Bride and Groom
Know that you will be tested by the routines of daily life, by chance and circumstance, and by the full cycle of the seasons of life.Know that together you must encounter life’s sorrow no less than its sweetness, its frustration along with its grace and ease, its disappointments along with its fulfillment.
Enter your marriage confident in the love and trust you have already created between you. As you go forward in your journey together as husband and wife, devote yourselves to living according to the vows you share today.
Sometimes it’s easy to get so caught up in the challenges of life that you forget about the foundation that you have beneath you and you find yourselves fighting against each other instead of fighting against the problem that you’re supposed to be facing together. Life certainly isn’t always fair, and it’s easy to get frustrated about your own problems that so many other couples are fortunate to never have to face … many without ever even realizing it … but at the end of the day, it’s of the utmost importance to remember that last night – be confident in the love and trust you already have – to let that carry us through the hard times.
Right now it’s hard to tell if the problems that we’re currently facing will be solved a year from now, but I’m learning that it’s important to take a step back every now and then to remember that marriage is a team sport and the challenges that we face are ours to share, not a burden for one or the other to carry alone.