10 Reasons I Love Marriage

 

10 years ago I married Christine Lind.  10 years ago we went from two people from different families to one flesh that were two atoms of a new family. 

Being married is many things and so many will say that being married is work or is hard or is sacrifice.  Those things are true, some days more true than others, but I hope that's not the first thing you think marriage is.  Marriage is so many things including a picture of Christ and the Church but I want to tell you that marriage is, in the words of the theologian Tony the Tiger, GRREEAT!

I love being married to Christine and I can't imagine my life without her.  I think those of us that love being married need to say so more often.  Marriage is not for wimps, but it is so good.  Marriage has had an awful P.R. campaign over the last many years and I just want to give you ten of the many reasons I love being married.

10 Awesome Benefits of Marriage

1) You Get Someone to Play With

Board games, inside jokes, goofy looks at supper... there is something so great about having a sleepover with your friend that goes on indefinitely.

2) Someone to Watch With

Movies are a shared experience and it's great getting to watch and discuss, watch and laugh along together, watch and look to see if they're tearing up.  I love when we sit side-by-side and watch a couple episodes of The Office together before bed.

3) Kids

Hopefully you get the chance to make babies or adopt kids into your family.  A marriage is the germ of a larger organism.  Some marriages don't expand into this larger unit but most get to and God designed marriage to do this.  One of my greatest joys is having kids with Christine.

4) You Get a Ministry Partner

Two equally yoked can pull so much more.  In marriage you get a partner to give you the power of synergy in your ministry.  My wife and I have been foster parents.  I could not and would not do that alone.  It's amazing that I have a partner who wants to take risks for the Kingdom with me.  She and I partner to accomplish.

5) Free Kisses

You get to kiss and be kissed by someone that digs you.  Marriage gives you someone that loves and desires to do what God has designed in the arena that God ordained it for.  You are free to express yourself physically with someone that wants you to.

6) You Get Support on Blah Days

There are days when life just doesn't fire on all cylinders.  There are terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days. In marriage you get someone to lean on and cry on.  My wife has been there for me on days when I just felt off, on days when my family has experienced death, on days when I just didn't feel good enough.  We all need that support and it's been indispensable.

7) You Get Someone to Say Things You Can't Say to Others

There are inside thoughts that feel the need to come out and just shouldn't.  Your spouse can hear those and not hate you.  There are thoughts you're working out that aren't yet for public consumption; your spouse can hear those unfiltered things.  This isn't encouragement to be gossiping or crude.  This is about having that safe person to speak to and say things that you need to say.

8) Consistency

Marriage is until death do us part.  That's consistency.  The world around you may change, you may move, the kids will move out, your job may go away, but he/she won't.  In a world of flux it's great to have a north star.

9) You Have Someone That Believes in You

Haters and doubters abound.  We all need someone that is on our team, in our cheering section and genuinely has a high view of us. We need someone that refuses to let us beat ourselves up and believe the lies we think about ourselves.  My wife believes more in me than I do in myself.

10) You Can Become a Patriarch and Matriarch 

This is one goal my wife and I talk about often.  We want to have grey heads and watch a bunch of cousins playing.  We want to be the patriarch and matriarch of a family.  We want our ideals to outlive us.  My family has a bi-annual reunion that features fun, enjoyment of one another and a time of worship together and I love it.  My other side doesn't have that.  The difference is that Grandma and Grandpa Ray stayed together through thick and thin.  We want this and only marriage can give this to us.

I love being married and especially love that I'm married to Christine.  Marriage deserves to be celebrated and I will do that today.