Happily Ever After

I am a paper and pen kind of gal. While I know there are people who live and die by their Palm Pilots and Blackberries, I am not one of them. I still use a classic size Franklin Planner with a tapestry cover and flowery pages. It must be the writer in me and the artist in my husband but we can’t imagine switching to something that we can’t write on, doodle on and otherwise use our artistic side.

Anyhoo, this morning I was going through my April pages to make sure I didn’t lose any important information before I recycled them. I was reading through the various quotes and found a few that were worth adding to my collection of quotes I’ve had since college.

It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day to day basis.
Margaret Bonnano

I’ve written before about how I met my husband and how blessed I am to be married to David. We’ve been married about eight and a half years so in a way we are no longer newlyweds (although sometimes we still feel like it!). Yet we both know that just because God brought us together doesn’t mean our marriage is fail-proof. We are both fallible humans, redeemed by the blood of Christ, but we will still struggle with sin until the Lord calls us home. There are no guarantees that any marriage, a Christian marriage included, will endure. It is only by the grace of God that any Christian marriage doesn’t end up in destruction and divorce. For us to live “happily ever after” we have to make wise, biblical choices that protect and nurture our marriage each day.

I remember one time someone I knew (who was single) made a comment about adultery. The comment was to the effect that this person could never do that and it was said in a somewhat prideful way. I immediately had a check in my spirit. My thought was that if you think you are above doing that you don’t know the potential depths of sin that exists in each of our lives. I believe a healthy fear of falling (or walking) into sin is one of the best defenses against that very sin.

So I’m going to keep working on my marriage each day because I do want the “happily ever after.” God gave us a wonderful start to our story and we want to be good stewards so the whole story will be a happy, God-honoring one.