Gift of Marriage: The Goal

We cannot be content to be complacent.

When I look back over history, I cannot help but notice that great things were forged in the search for more, for better. When people stepped out in faith, they were rewarded generously. Often times their journeys required patience, time, and sacrifice, but they left an everlasting fingerprint and difference in their own life as well as those around them. Personally, I have found this same thing to be true within my own life. The times I have sought better, stepped out in faith, I was rewarded ever so generously. The path, the journey, the adventure was often challenging and met with adversity, but the end was worth the means.

Where am I going with this? Although I think we must be thankful for what we have, where we are, and all that we have been blessed with, I think we have to constantly be striving to be better. Stop to smell the roses, and then plant some more...or something like that :) This is how I view marriage, and the attitude I hope to cultivate within myself and my readers...always want to be a better wife, a better husband, and have a better marriage. If you are striving for that, then you are always moving forward even if in the smallest of increments.

So often we grow complacent and comfortable with where things are. Now don't confuse this with being thankful and grateful for what you have...I am talking about something different. Being thankful is essential, but adopting and attitude of complacency results in decay. Coming to mind is the medical condition of bedsores. Here is a blip from the Mayo Clinic to fill you in:

"Bedsores, more accurately called pressure sores or pressure ulcers, are areas of damaged skin and tissue that develop when sustained pressure cuts off circulation to vulnerable parts of your body, especially the skin on your buttocks, hips and heels. Without adequate blood flow, the affected tissue dies.

Although people living with paralysis are especially at risk, anyone who is bedridden, uses a wheelchair or is unable to change positions without help can develop bedsores.

Bedsores can develop quickly, progress rapidly and are often difficult to heal. Yet health experts say many of these wounds don't have to occur. Key preventive measures can maintain the skin's integrity and encourage healing of bedsores"

Marriages can have their own bedsores when we stop doing the work necessary to keep the circulation moving. Just like when we stop moving or can't move our bodies and the blood flow is discontinued, the tissues dies, marriages die when we stop moving toward one another and growth. Also like bedsores, these problems can develop quickly, progress rapidly, and lead to a difficult healing process. Another similarity between the two? That key preventive measures can maintain the integrity and healing of a marriage.

My objective with Little Wifey is to encourage each couple, each person to strive for movement and growth in their marriage. Follow some key preventive measures to help maintain the integrity and health of the marriage. Each couple draws their own conclusions, boundaries, standards, etc., but my hope is that I give you some key things to steer clear from, avoid, implement, etc. all aimed at promoting the constant movement, growth, and health of your marriage. You get out of marriage what you put in; it requires work, effort, and commitment.