"mawiage..."

...or "marriage," for those of you who haven't seen the Princess Bride.

I've recently stumbled across a blog that has quickly become my favorite in my blog roll. Courtney, at Women Living Well, is an incredibly inspiring Christian woman who is a SAHM, and loves (almost) every minute of it. She's honest about the hard stuff and the good stuff, which you don't see very often in blogs. She's been doing a Marriage Challenge this summer, and since I found her blog too late to join, I've just been reading along the past couple of weeks. Today she's prompted her readers to assess their marriage, encouraging specific things to think about. I was surprised to read through her list to consider, realizing that we've been working on our marriage this summer without even really realizing it!

We just passed our two year anniversary in June, and I have to say I've loved being married more than I ever thought I would. I knew I would enjoy it, and that God would bless us, but I never knew just how much I would enjoy it! Jason is such an awesome man to be married to, and we continue to challenge each other every day.

So here's Courtney's list...

1. We must continue to remember those dating days and what made us fall in love with our husbands in the first place.

We used to have a set night, on Thursdays, when we would have date night. This summer things have gotten busy, so we can't pick the same night each week. BUT, we have managed to still spend at least one evening a week "dating." My favorite was actually last week, when we had a house showing. We went out to Meadowbrook park, wandered around, laid in the shade, took pictures, and just talked. It was such a sweet time, and it was really refreshing, even though it was just for a couple of hours.

2. Remember our sacred vows.

I found our wedding vows that we wrote to each other a couple of weeks ago, and put them up on the refrigerator. We don't say them to each other every day (though we have a couple of times!), but they are there as a constant reminder of the promises we made to each other. I love seeing them each morning!

3. Remember to ask your husband how you can be praying for him daily.

Each evening we go through these points: How are you feeling? I appreciate that you ______ today. How can I pray for you? Even though these could get old, I really do enjoy having this conversation with Jason. Some nights it's short and sweet, but usually it turns into a great bedtime conversation about how we're doing in life at that point. It's lovely :)

4. Remember to tell your husband how you admire him.

This kind of ties in with our bedtime ritual. Telling him what I appreciate or admire about him each specific day is so good. It's so easy to get wrapped up into generalities..."I appreciate...um...you..." instead of specifically knowing what you appreciate or admire. It's encouraging to hear an actual reason that you're appreciated!

5. Remember to keep your priorities in line.

Jason can vouch for the fact (I hope!) that I've been striving more and more lately to be a wife that supports, encourages, and serves him. I've been trying to have dinners better planned and prepared ahead of time, asked him what he envisions for our family so that I can support him in it, keep up with the laundry, etc... Some of you may be rolling your eyes out there, but I have been loving every.single.minute. of it. Call me a 1950's wife if you want, but I'd take it as a compliment! My number 1 priority is God, but a close second is Jason.

6. Remember to follow your husband's lead and vision for your family.

This is something I've been especially working on since January. As we've talked about starting a family, we know that we both want me to be a SAHM (while being a doula on the side!). So, we talked about what it would take financially, where Jason would need to be with work, and where I would need to be with my doula business. We wrote down the specifics, and have been working hard to get there. I've tightened down our budget a LOT, and we've been working together to stick to it. We paid off our debt, have been saving like crazy, and are hoping that before too long, we'll be in a new house. We're working together to reach our goals, and it's great!

7. Remember to respect your husband.

As obvious as this is, it's sometimes hard for me. I'm very stubborn, so I have to check myself sometimes when I KNOW I'm being disrespectful. Jason thrives on encouragement, support and respect, so when I don't give him those things, it knocks him down a notch, and I can see it. I've been better about it, but I still need to be consistently working on respecting him all the time.

8. Remember to keep kissing him like you mean it!

I'm not going to comment on this one ;)


I'm so happy with where we are in life right now. This summer has been crazy full of ups and downs, highs and lows, but we've been joyful and happy through it all (well, most of it!). I'm consistently thankful (and quite frankly amazed sometimes) at how strong our marriage is. I had a lot of people, including family, question me about getting married "so young" at 22. I'm glad I ignored the questioning, and followed my heart and God's heart for me in marrying Jason when I did. God has blessed us and our marriage so much, and I think we can honestly say we're more in love now than when we got married.