10/08/2024
I want to ask about... vision. What does marriage mean to you?
I read this little story (below) and loved it. I'm learning to recognize my part of the problems in my own marriage, and I know I'll discover even more about myself in the future. But I hadn't planned on marrying as a self-improvement plan. I was simply in love with a fantastic woman.
So again, why did you marry? How would I persuade my own children to marry? Why are you married? What do you want, what do you hope for?
Story from another post:
This is marriage
āI stood in my bedroom doing my makeup when I heard my parents across the hall in the bathroom. My father was groaning in immense pain and luckily my mother was there to help him. I was a self-absorbed twenty-something at the timeābouncing back and forth between two men like a rubber ball. But this moment between my parents struck me.
My father moaned. āItās okay, Chris,ā my mother said to him. āIām here.ā
That was the start of my fatherās painful side effects from his prostate cancer years priorāsomething that would only get worse with time.
As I leaned toward the mirror, slipping mascara onto my lashes, I heard more grumbling from my father. I froze. I was stuck in their moment with no place to go. I heard a clank in the bathroom. A mess was made out of my fatherās control. My mother would be the one to clean it up. āIām so sorry,ā my dad said.
āItās okay, Chris,ā my mom said. āIām here.ā
After I was done with my makeup, I sat on my bed with the door cracked open. While I was nervous about my dadās health, tears fell onto my jeans because I finally realized somethingāTHIS is marriage.
Marriage isnāt found at the big wedding, the trendy date nights, or even hours spent together on the couch watching Netflix. Marriage is found in the darknessāwith one spouse helping the other during a time that would be humiliating to share with anyone else.
As young girls and boys, we watch movies and read stories about happy endings, blissful beginnings, and comedic in-betweens. But true romance is found when two people need each other, are vulnerable with one another, and can wholeheartedly depend on one another during the darkest times in life.
I sat on my bed, and at that moment, I decided to stop bouncing. I wanted my future to look like my parentsāāimperfect but beautiful. My parentsā marriage and my marriage have been full of dips and peaks, but witnessing the true love in their moment will forever keep reminding me that marriage is found in the toughest spots in lifeāeven the bathroom.ā
Credit: Angela Anagnost-Repke, Writer
