The Key to My Successful Marriage

Eleven years ago, I met a guy.  He was funny, intelligent, kind and genuinely wanted to make a difference.  Our friends set us up and now he’s my husband of ten years.

It hasn’t been a typical fairy tale.  We faced issues just before we got married that threatened our relationship. We’ve moved interstate twice and moved house seven times. We’ve walked the journey of infertility issues and then the turmoil of learning to parent together.  In the midst of it all, we work together.

Each morning, we’re thrown into a small room together for three hours and our job is to have fun on a radio program.

Living together.  Working together.  It sounds like a good mix for a marriage, but when we tell people, the most common response is: “How could you do that?  Are you crazy?”

The answer is, no.  Well, maybe.

Truth is; I love my husband’s company.  He’s the first person I want to tell when something happens in my life.  When he’s gone, I can’t wait to see him again.  There are times when he drives me mad.  There are times when I drive him mad.  But, at the end of the day, we picture our lives as “Luke and Susie.”  We may not make sense on paper, but in life, we somehow do.

I would describe our marriage as successful.  We’re not always great at communicating.  And in battle, we can be fierce.  But, we have one key that I believe will keep our marriage strong, now and always.

And it’s really, really, really simple.

So simple, in fact, that we knew it the day we got married.  We knew it, because we spoke it.

Beside our bed is our wedding photo along with our wedding vows.  They are not something that was just spoken as a part of a ceremony ten years ago. They are the words that shape our marriage, that determine how we treat each other.  Our vows were based on a verse in the Bible: Galatians 5: 22 & 23, which speaks of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-discipline.

This marriage week, my challenge to those who have been married for a while is to remember your vows and ask yourself, honestly, are you still living them?