Ten years tomorrow. Our first decade as one flesh. It feels big, two digits, and yet such a small step towards the fifty or sixty years that so many couples have walked together before us. It’s been an adventure, the wildest, most incredible ride the Lord has taken me on in this life, and it’s worth a little celebration.
So, while we’re enjoying our fanciest dinner of the year, here’s some good solid marriage advice, beautifully told as only Ann Voskamp can.
Congratulations to you two, a pair of the most lovely people I know! May you have many more golden years together.
And what a great link!
10 years?!! Woo-hoo!! What a blessing from the Lord! And yes, it is an adventure–the best kind.
Congratulations! We had our 10th a year and a half ago and I enjoyed the same sort of reflection. It seemed significant but then I realized that it was only a small portion of the total timeline of our marriage and suddenly I was impacted with the reality that it wasn’t yet time to sit back and coast.
Happy Anniversary!
I saw that article the other day and loved it! Congrats on a decade of marriage!! Can’t wait until we hit our 10 year anniversary in August.
wow! Our tenth is next Wednesday! Fun to find that out about you.
(we’ve had quite a ride, too)
Happy Anniversary! What a blessing you are!
Congratulations, I just read the said article and am wondering on your opinion of dating or courtship? In our faith we do not date or court, in fact when a brother feels moved by the Spirit, the brother will approach the Elder or Minister to ask the sister. It is a really huge leap of faith and sometimes things do not work out. Though most do, often times a brother will only see a picture of a sister and feel that she is the one.
This practise has been in our church since it’s beginning and recently many wish to update to dating.
Mrs. Tumbas,
The Bible has very little to say about how we should go about the pre-marriage process. Most of what we have are a few anecdotal examples. The only actual commands are not to engage in premarital sexual activity and not to marry unbelievers. So in any discussion of this sort, it is important not to get too enamored with any one system as if it were the secret key to unlocking happy future marriages. We need to keep in mind that the Bible does have A LOT to say about after we get married, about living as husband and wife, about love and respect, self-sacrifice and reverence, consistency and faithfulness. If two people are absolutely committed to obeying what the Bible says about the “after,” then I think the “before” will not matter nearly as much as some people think. Dating, courtship, arranged marriage, etc. can all work just fine. But if the commitment to the Lord and His commands isn’t there, then no amount of carefully designed “before” will make up for the rocky “after.”
That being said, I do want to pass along the caution that any pre-marriage system that allows intimacy without commitment (like dating so often does) can be dangerous for two reasons. First, it sets young people up to become intimate and then break up several times in a row, which is actually practice for divorce. And second, once a person finally does marry, when the inevitable troubles come, it is easy to mentally return to past intimacy and wonder if someone else would have made a better spouse, which undermines the real marriage relationship.
Happy anniversary!! Hard to believe it’s been 10 years!
Félicitations, Mme Parunak!
Congratulations on your upcoming anniversary, and thank you for linking to that article.
It seems fitting now to ask: we’re a young couple, probably soon to get engaged, and eager to glean thoughts and advice on marriage from older, wiser Christians. After ten years of marriage, is there anything in particular you think might be helpful to pass on to young people? Anything you wish you’d known before marriage? I admire your blog and would love to hear your thoughts.
Again, congratulations! I hope your ten years are just the start of a wonderful life together.
Rachel,
That’s a good question. I think I’ll try to answer it in it’s own blog post. With my busy household, sometime it takes a week or two to get from idea to published post, so it may be a little while. Lord willing, when I get it done, I’ll send you an e-mail.
Wow, thank you! I know you must be very busy, so I really appreciate you going to the effort.
Congratulations! That is great!
Congratulations! My hubby and I will be celebrating 10 years in January.
This is a little late, apologies for that but just wanted to add my congratulations to you and your husband.
10 years is such an achievement!
Congratulations again