Love your Spouse challenge

I accepted a tag on my Facebook account and I was so excited to look for old photos to put in the 7-day challenge. Today is the 7th day and I was kinda sad that I will not be able to show off our photos after today. It is so amazing to see how we look like when we were younger. It made me realize that time flew so fast and we were not as cute as before LOL! I'm a bit nostalgic now making me feel that love your spouse fever more heartfelt. Lito and I have been together for 24 years and been married for 16 years. Like any other couple we have our ups and downs and we are thankful that we are still married until now.

Not all smiles.

Our pictures look good because we are smiling, we are on cam. But the day to day life is not all smiles. We also face similar problems married couples experience. Married life is a journey and it's not always a smooth ride. Last weekend, Lito and I had a Nicholas Sparks movie marathon. We watched The Longest Ride and Me Before You. Both movies were tear-jerkers but exposed real life situations and how relationships should be nurtured. Love means sacrifice, it means thinking more of the other person's welfare than yourself. The real joy comes from knowing that the other person is happy. Enjoying doing things together even one is not into it at first. Compromise? maybe, but it is clear that there is willingness to learn, to adapt, to change or accept.

Three cords are not easily broken.

We renewed our wedding vows last year in celebration of 15 blissful married years. The theme of the Minister's message was about The three cords not easily broken (Ecclesiastes 4:12). The third cord of course is God. It is written in the bible that God ordained marriage starting with Adam and Eve. It is not just a ritual, not a ceremony or tradition. When we get into marriage, we are asking and letting God join in our relationship to fulfill his promises. "He will never leave us not forsake us" "whenever 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, I will be with them" "in everything you do, put God first and He will direct you and He will crown your efforts with success." Lito and I believe in all these and more. We believe in the Divine intervention, whenever there is trouble, we pray on our own or together and God will do something. That applies too when we have a fight or disagreement, it is always comforting to know that God works in our marriage. We entrusted our marriage to our Lord and He continually bless us and our family.

In one of my posts, a brother said that this is like a chain letter, And my reply was "it's okay if it's showing that marriage still works in these times. We still and will believe that God ordained man and woman to get into and enjoy marriage. It could be a rough ride but with God in it will be smooth.

The pictures I posted for the 7-day challenge are reflections of real joy from our togetherness, our wedding day, our renewal of vows, our travels, when we are dressed up or just lounging around. Our smiles are radiating from our hearts because we know that even if this 7-day challenge is over, we will show and express our "love your spouse" everyday. We Love because God first loved us 1 John 4:19.

Here are the pictures I posted. Keep the love alive, stay married and look up to God.