3 Lessons in 4 Years

After being  married for four years, there are three lessons I learned that I want to share.

1. That God designed marriage NOT for the couples to be HAPPY, but for them TO BE HOLY. Happiness is just a result of the journey to holiness. Such journey opens the eyes to what is really valuable in the eternal perspective.
2. That romantic love would really stop after two years of marriage. I can sulk, panic, despair, or be resentful. Or I can choose to look beyond selfish expectations and feelings. The heart is deceitful after all. Building friendship with my spouse is a lifetime journey. It can be a joyful one if we are willing to love like in 1 Corinthians 13: ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

Being a part of my husband team gives me the belongingness and satisfaction I’ve sought for. And our love blossomed. A new kind of love. Much stronger than the romantic love we had.

3. That to enable me to love unconditionally, I first need to experienced God’s love for me. Romans 8: 39, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.That I may have missed out in growing up in a ‘normal’ family, but through marriage, I was given a chance of creating something beautiful filled with God’s security, love, and peace.”

Thank God for marriage. Thank God for the lessons.

Date written: August 16, 2016