To Be Honest...

    Just to be clear, my husband knows that I'm posting this on my blog (in fact, he helped me write it). And I'm not sharing it to vent but simply to show that we're not perfect and how God works in our lives. :)
    We had a fight today. It was short but ugly. I won't go into details but basically it all boils down too this: I was impatient, demanding and bratty and he was inconsiderate and stubborn. In the end, a fight like this winds up with both partners losing. He got mad and needed space and I plopped myself down to pout in the other room.
    Yuck.
    Sometimes you think being right is the most important thing. It's all that matters to you at the time. And you end up pushing your partner's face down in the mud to get there first. Marriage isn't always snuggling, and sweet words, believe me.
    Eventually, my husband came and found me. He humbled himself (which I believe was a wonderful and very manly quality for him to show) and apologized. It made me feel sad that I had been such a brat and I apologized as well. We made up in the usual husband/wife way: a kiss and a good long hug :) Thank God for how He has worked in both our lives! He is continually using His grace to teach us how to forgive and admit our failures to one another.
    I just want people to know that we aren't perfect. I depress myself at times by thinking that other couples don't fight like we do. I falsely believe that no one else has selfishness problems in their marriage like us. Even if my head knows that's not true, I let my emotions run wild in the dark forest of comparison. And before I know it, I'm stressed out, joyless and wondering which way is North.
    The truth is if you're in any serious relationship, whether it's a friendship, paternal relationship, sibling relationship or marriage relationship, you. are. going. to. fight. At some point, you will. If you haven't yet, I'd wonder how serious your relationship really is. It's just a fact of life.
I'm not encouraging you to fight in your relationships. Honestly, if you're human you won't need any encouragement in that area, it'll happen sooner or later :) But what I am saying is, learn from it. Let God use it in your life to teach you humbleness by admitting your mistakes and gracefulness by extending forgiveness.
    And also don't be discouraged by your failures. Everybody has them. But don't be like I am sometimes and compare yourself or your relationship to other's. Just live the life that God has given you (and you alone) totally surrendered to His grace and way of living. That's the best way to glorify Him. <-------- I didn't just write that because I have it down, I wrote it because I need to hear it my self. Again, and again and again....aaaaaaand again. :)
    So, to be honest. Jonathan and I fight. We are selfish. We need the grace of Jesus and the working of the Holy Spirit. Every. Single. Day.
And we also love one another very much. We care enough about our marriage to patch up the holes (by God's grace) we put in our little boat and keep sailing on.We just love figuring out life together as best friends. Praise God for marriage!



ps. This has nothing to do with the above post but I just thought I'd share a little somethin' somethin' that made me happy yesterday. My sister Mel told me about an app for people with smartphones that I have wanted for a long time. It's a photo collage app called, Photo Grid. At least that's the one I downloaded and I love it! You can easily make pics like this:

     So if you can, go download it! It's free, yay! And finally, here's the one I made for today. We organized and cleaned out our storage room to create a craft room for me. I can't wait to see the projects that come out of here! Now, on to Pinterest ;)