Nobody Told Me About the Goodness

This morning, i woke up very early in the morning.  VERY early in the morning.  I was lying in bed at three-something a.m. when i noticed that i couldn't hear my husband breathing, and even though i was yanking with all my might to get some of the covers back, he wasn't moving either.

I didn't panic.  I've gotten better at not panicking over time.  But the imagination wanders sometimes.

This is a picture of a partially damaged picture of my daddy walking me down the "aisle" at our wedding.

This is symbolic of what i'm about to tell you.

I remember, for as long and as far back as i can remember anyone talking about marriage, someone was saying how, "marriage is hard work."  "Marriage isn't easy, you know!"

I heard it over and over.  I even repeated it to others (as if i had a clue). I prepared my mind for what hard work marriage would be.  We both took the whole proposition extremely seriously.  Marriage is hard work.

Marriage is hard work.  I'm not disputing that.

But shortly after we got married, i remember the moment that the realization hit me.


Nobody ever told me how good this was going to be!


Everyone was so busy talking marriage down that no one ever got around to telling me why marriage was worth all this hard work!  Nobody told me how absolutely at peace i would feel when my husband held me in his arms.  Nobody told me how much i would enjoy getting to spend every moment with my best friend.  Nobody told me how nice it would be to go to bed with my foot wrapped around the foot of my soul mate or how safe i would feel as long as he was close by or proud i would be to call myself his wife.  Nobody told me that no matter how hard marriage may sometimes be, that the payoff is so good that i wouldn't remember the hard part.  Nobody told me how much i would learn about God's love by being married to a kind and honorable man.  Nobody told me how good it would be.

That's what i thought about when my husband wasn't moving this morning.  That's what i thought about when i got up made sure he was breathing.  That's what i thought about when i got back in bed and wrapped my foot around his ankle.  That's how good it still is.