Eek! A new link up! I’m beyond excited to host and even more excited to read about what marriage is teaching others! The easiest way to link-up is to put the link to your individual post in a comment at the end of this post. Then hop around and see what others are learning and writing about! I’ll host this link up on the last Thursday of every month (like a monthly Thanksgiving – literally!), so be sure to come back and keep writing – marriage is always teaching new lessons!
What is marriage teaching me lately? Mostly it is teaching me about patience. I’ve had a life long struggle with being patient. Lines at the grocery store, lines for confession (the irony!), traffic, drivers who don’t know how to drive in the mountains, waiting for love/marriage to enter my life, you name it, I’ve probably been impatient about it. Marriage is no different.
There are times in marriage that I’m anything but patient with Anthony. I come home and I wonder why there are still dishes in the sink or why the trash smells so wretched (he has an awful/non-existent sense of smell and I’m pregnant, you do the math). It isn’t that he’s sitting around being lazy either. Often times I miss what he has done, like hang up art work, make the bed, etc. The reality is that marriage is pushing me to be more patient, to not jump immediately on the band wagon of nagging, but to communicate more effectively when there’s something going on I don’t like or disagree with.
In a similar way, marriage is pushing me to be more patient with Anthony. Being single I got used to hiding from the world when I had a bad day, or from others when they had a bad day. Not so in marriage. If I come home and he’s had a bad day, its my calling – and part of my vocation – to be patient and loving with him, even if I feel like I’m getting the short end of the stick. The easy (and for me, normal) response is to snap back, to treat others – including my husband – the way I’m being treated. Instead, I’m learning to be patient with him, to love him, to meet him where he’s at, give him space if he needs it, or just listen. I’m learning to take a breath and not react so quickly, but to be patient and loving anyway. I have no doubt that such a practice is also influencing every area of my life – including my soon-to-be motherhood. 🙂
So what is marriage teaching YOU? Link up in the comments – I can’t wait to read them!
