Don’t you love a good wedding?

Aw, the season of weddings. I love it. I love everything about a wedding. The beautiful flowers, amazing dresses, love songs played on the piano, dim lights while the bride dances with her Daddy, a man and a woman pledging their love before God and family with promises of forever love. My daughter was the flower girl in my cousins wedding on June 5. This is the last wedding of grandchildren on my Mom’s side. It was very sentimental knowing that all of my Grandma’s grandchildren are now married (or have been). I have some pictures to post but I lent my memory card to the bride and haven’t got it back yet.

The one thing that weddings remind me is that a marriage is hard work. David and I just celebrated our 15th anniversary. I can honestly say that I love him more today than I did on our wedding day. Our love now is a mature love. Oh, I still get butterflies sometimes when I look across the room at him. Especially when he is playing with the kids. The fact that he is an amazing Dad is so sexy.

Although we are happily married, we do have our moments, like every couple. In the past fifteen years I have learned so much about myself and him. These are my top 5 tips for a happy marriage.

5. Keep God first no matter what. God created marriage and he wants it to work. Pray with your spouse about everything; kids, money, everything. There is nothing that God doesn’t want to have a hand in.

4. Laugh together daily. We still laugh at each other’s jokes (even when they are bad), play jokes on each other and just have fun together. Make sure you take time for each other in the midst of being parents. One day the kids are going to grow up and leave the house (at least we hope, they will). We don’t want to wake up one day and realize that we no longer have anything in common. David is my best friend and I love that about us.

3. Just do it. Nothing more said.

2. Realize that there are going to be fights, but fight fair. We have tried (unsuccessfully, I might add) two times to do The Love Dare. The very first challenge is to say nothing negative to your spouse. I never realized how hard this is. Forgive always and forget. This is so hard but a successful marriage depends on it.

1. The number one tip I have is to be real. Don’t expect more from your spouse than they are able to give. None of us are perfect. Guys are so different than girls. That is just a fact. Don’t expect your husband to talk more, he probably isn’t going to. The average woman says 20,000 words a day. The average man says only 7000. Girls, we can’t change ‘em. Find a few good girl friends to have conversations with and let your husband off the hook.

May God bless all of your marriages. I’m looking forward to at least 40 more years with David.