Us

Us
Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Psalm 127:1

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Family Time......

We stole a few days away with our kids last week and headed to the beach. We loaded up some school work, did very little of it and had a GREAT time together. Playing in the sand, boogie boarding in the warm water and Morgan falling asleep on Dan in front of the camp fire; priceless. :)
Seriously it was just what the Dr. ordered for everybody in our house. Dan was burnt out from work, I was feeling cruddy from the heat, and the girls? Well, they just wanna get away and play with daddy.
We have been taking the girls picture on this bench since before Ryanne could walk. Now she RUNS down the 100+ steps and always beats us to the top. It happens so fast.

On a side note I was sitting on the beach enjoying the warm sun and cool breeze watching Dan play with the girls and I started thinking about all the "stuff" we have been through over the past almost 13 years of marriage. I don't know why but I truly believe more than ever this is a VERY difficult time to be married. Actually scratch that, I DO know why. Satan wants the church to fall apart and the best way to do that is to get to the heart of the family and ruin it. So many couples that I know are struggling with big, ugly, hurtful things and when I am listening to them share and thinking back on our marriage I feel badly that I can't give them a time frame for it to get "all better." Dan and I struggled no lie for the first 8 years of our marriage. I would literally beat my head against the wall wondering where I went wrong. Marriage is life and life has storms. Some last a few hours, days or weeks and some storms are crazy long and leave a path of craziness BUT the good news is God is good and faithful and the only thing you really have to decide when in the midst of that storm is if you are gonna stay or flee. You choose to stay and God will honor that faithfulness and when the storm clears you will have joy. All that to say when I was watching Dan with our girls I got that lump in my throat that you cant swallow down and goose bumps. I LOVE that man. That imperfect, hard headed, driven, amazing man! :)
If you get a chance go over and click on my friend Crystal's blog and read the letter about marriage she posted. My favorite quote from it is "marriage is fabulously hard."
Have a blessed day and go hug your spouse! It's probably hard being married to us sometimes too! ;)




6 comments:

Brigitte said...

You think? and here I was thinking I was always all roses. So much for that mental image. Ha ha. Thanks for the note. Looks like you had a lot of fun! Your post also made me wonder if people would get married if we could give them a glimpse of the hard road - but as you state the pay off after the storm. That is what makes it all worth it!!!!

Stacy said...

yep marriage is just a little bit hard.. HA :-) Gotta love how God always pulls us through though.. He is Faithful and loves us more than we could even imagine... can't wait to hug my man tomorrow :-)

Jessica said...

How wonderful that you guys could get away to the beach together... this is my favorite time of year to go there.

I think being married to me is way harder than it is for me to be married to Matt :)

junglemama said...

Great post. It takes work to amke your marriage strong but it so worth it! :)

Crystal said...

Thank you :). Thank you for being so candid and sharing the "hardness" of it all. And here you sit, 13 years later, with a lump in gratitude in your throat at what a good man Dan has become :). God is faithful. We just take it all one "baby" step at a time, right :)?

Eileen said...

So good. You and Dan had issues? Gosh, you just burst my idea of the "perfect marriage" bubble that I thought you had (hehehe). I know... nothing and nobody is perfect. I love your transparency. The pictures and outing look fantastic, great family times and memories!!!