Not Perfect. But Beautiful.

No marriage is perfect.

We all have times where we are struggling. Often we have different levels of struggles. Some face extremely obvious hardship, while others are battle a little more quietly. Some struggle after 30 years of marriage, while others are pushing through things in their earlier years.

What I am getting at here is this....
Don't read into every other couple you know thinking that they don't know what it means to struggle. Thinking they just have a perfect relationship and nothing hard ever comes their way.

That's pure judgement right there.

I know for myself personally I bet there are some people that look as Jason and I and think, "Oh they have it good. They never fight or have bad days. They don't know what it's like to experience hardship in life."

And they are 100% wrong.

When I am talking about struggles here, I'm not just talking about the arguments or dissention that can be felt within your marriage. I'm also talking about the difficult things that can happen in life.

And we get it, even after only being married one year.

We know what it's like to argue.
We know what it's like to have a hard day.
We know what it's like to wonder where the money will come from and to wonder when things will get easier.
We know what it's like to just want to hold on to each other and ignore the difficult things happening around us.

Now don't get me wrong here, I do look back on my new life with Jason and see such beauty, such joy, such love that has grown deeper and more authentic. Most of all, I see God holding our hands together along the way. Honestly, besides the normal differences every young couple works through, Jason and I are wonderful. I feel that my love for him grows stronger as each day passes, and being able to see him every day of my life fills me with such joy.

 It's the difficult challenges that life brings that can make everything else harder.

But it's how you act in that time that matters. It's how you respond that is important.

Take our wedding day for instance. It POURED and THUNDERED which changed every single plan that he been there from the beginning. Seriously, I'm not kidding her. We were having an outdoor wedding and reception in the middle of July. But God had different plans. So we went with it and INVITED the rain to be just another "accent" to our wedding day.

Just like the storms that come into our lives, we need to respond in a way we won't be embarrassed to look back upon. Yes, we make mistakes, but if we hold our heads up, I believe God will guide us down the right path.

So have hope today. Know that EVERY couple has difficult days, weeks, or months. Some couples experience hard times within their marriage, while others experience hardship in many other areas.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Push through this difficult time. Make sure to spend time with those that refresh you, and build you up. Ask others' for prayer. Spend time in prayer yourself.

God knows.
He will bring you out of that storm.
He brought Jason through the storm, and we were still holding hands tightly, full of love for each other.
He CAN do the same for you.