We must understand that marriage is important. We must learn to value our unity as a husband and wife. We must NOT take our marriages for granted. When we do, we lose the importance of being one. We are creatures of habit. If we don’t take the time to form the healthy habit of celebrating, marriage becomes..ho-hum and almost forgotten.
My husband and I recently celebrated 11 years of marriage. We’ve had our ups and downs, but an anniversary is a special day to focus on what we have endured for the last year. We made it another year. You are here. I am here. Let’s celebrate each other! Let’s celebrate victories over the hard stuff. Let us remember the fun times and yet still look into the future at what more is to come!
I have to admit that celebrating my marriage is a new idea to me. Sure we would go out for a nice dinner or take an overnight trip to honor our anniversaries. Sadly, that was all we did for awhile. Weekly or monthly dates were out of the question because we thought we needed monies to have fun…WE WERE WRONG!!!
On our 11th year anniversary we each took the time to surprise the other with something special and cheap. He made my favorite breakfast, french toast with brown sugar!! It was so yummy! Our children are very young, but we took out our wedding album and shared with them the story of our wedding. My three year old son loved it.
My surprise was just around the corner. Before lunch, we took the kids to Papa and Memaw’s house for the afternoon. I drove Scott to our favorite park and unpacked a delicious picnic lunch. He had no idea what was happening. As we were eating, a familiar car pulled up and it was our long time family friends. We picnicked in the park together and took some awesome photos.
My husband had known this couple since he attended youth group. I was introduced to them after Scott and I had been dating. Their oldest son was 5 at the time and did an awesome job as a ring barrier at our wedding. This couple has been married for 15 years. They are a wonderful example of what a marriage is. They inspired me to write this piece. While Mitch and Steph were with us at the park they told us that it was a special day for them too. They were celebrating being married for 6,000 days. How cool is that. (you can check out how many days you have been married at this website, http://www.timeanddate.com/date/duration.html) I would have never thought about celebrating number of days married, but it got me thinking.
What other cool ways are there during the year to celebrate marriage?
*Celebrate your wedding anniversary
*Celebrate a special number of days 1000, 5000, 10000, …
*Celebrating the day you were engaged
*Celebrate your first kiss
*Take time to go on weekly or at least monthy dates
*Take a second honeymoon
*Celebrate milestone anniversaries
*Renew your vows
*Pray together
*Send each other notes just because
*Share a bag of Jelly beans and try the flavor combos on the back
*Shout from the mountain tops that you are in love!!
*Write notes to each other on the bathroom mirror
*Tell your spouse why they are the perfect mate for you
*Sneak a note in your spouses lunch box or briefcase
The list goes on and on…Come up with something special that you and your spouse can do to celebrate and honor your marriage. Celebrating your marriage can be fun and easy. Don’t fall into a rut..CELEBRATE!!!