Being Committed!

Much as happened in the last few months that have left me reflecting on my life especially my marriage.
I almost lost my husband two months ago and this gave me a harsh lesson of what life could have been like without him. 
I still remeber the earlier years of our marriage where I honestly just wanted to give up.  We were both very different people back then.  He was cold and I couldn't see pass his harshness.  I wasn't necessarily the easiest person either.  I was young and immature. 
We were however committed!  Regardless of the many times we wanted to call it quits we pressed through regardless of  how we felt.  When I tell you I pressed through I mean I literally PRESSED through! 
 We were both committed to make it work.  While he prayed that i would become the obedient quiet wife I was praying he would become the loving affectionate husband.  While those prayers have been answered during the twenty two years of our marriage I would have to say that before we saw the results we wanted to see in each other we first had to do harsh honest evaluation of us as individuals.

I learned that alot about myself during those first years.  I saw much of myself that I wasn't necessarily proud of.  My focus slowly started to change from praying for my husband to be molded into what i wanted him to be and i started to pray for the things of my character that i didn't like.

My best piece of advise to you who are struggling in a relationship (obviously if it's not an abusive relationship), look first into yourself.  Do a serious evaluation of yourself, what you think, how you respond to situations and especially what you say.  Focus on making strides to change the things about you that you don't like.  Chances are if you don't like things about your character than it is very likely that neither does the person that's in a relationship with you. 

When I worked on this myself I started to feel happy in my marriage, I started not only to see me change but my husband as well.  Don't take as many years as I did to do this self evalution.  I wasted precious time that I could of used to enjoy my relationship, yet I spent those years unhappy. 

Life is valuable, the things we say and do tomorrow we can never take back but we can certainly learn from them and make strides to avoid those unfortunate words and actions from repeating themselves.
Also, don't forget that we women are highly sensitive and see things through our emotions where men are more rational.  Men think with reason and logic where we think with however we might be feeling that day. 
God is simple, so let us not over analyze things in our relationship and instead lead each day with simplicity and grace.  Show the understanding that you yourself want to receive. 

Live each day with thankfulness!