How did we do it, you ask? (Even if you don't ask, I'm going to tell you anyway.)
Both of us have kept showing up and doing whatever it takes to keep showing up again the next day.
Many of you are familiar with these verses, which were probably used at your own wedding:
" Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails." 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
But the verse that has really gotten me through is this:
"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" Romans 12:21
Joining my life to another human being, this one individual human being, in matrimony has been amazing, terrible, joyful, wonderful and sometimes heart-wrenching. It has also been entirely unique to any other relationship on earth:
I chose this one man, and promised God, my family, and my friends that I would stick by him no matter what. That was a pretty heavy decision for a twenty-year-old girl. I hadn't a clue what I was getting myself into. Neither did my husband. No one does.
Over the past thirty-three years, all of my greatest dreams and some of my worst nightmares have come true. We're not done yet. Our best and worst days are still ahead of us. We will face them together because we promised. And, for as long as we live, we'll keep on showing up.
