I love him, even if.... 3/23/16

Why else would anyone put up with manic-depressive episodes?
Why else would anyone tolerate forgetfulness or carelessness?
I love him. Yeah, I know.
I sometimes feel as if I put up with way more than other women in my age range with comparable marital experience. Sometimes, I ask myself, “why on earth do you bother?” over half the things he does. He’s not perfect. Neither am I. But we are committed to each other and I can tell when he is truly trying. He has been trying, too. His current issue is finding a balance between work, family, serving, etc. I’ve slowly fallen into my balance within my own daily life. I’m hoping he’s falling into his as well. Learning to decline people was my biggest problem in finding my balance. His is prioritization.
My patience has definitely been tried lately. Thankfully, we have some truly supportive church family that have been helpful beyond measure. I don’t think I would have gotten through the past 3 weeks without them. Having genuine support is hard. I am grateful that we are surrounded with true, caring friends who tell it like it is. We’ve needed that. We have enough “cheerleaders.” My definition of cheerleaders are people who are there to root you on during your successes but fade away when things have gonna a awry.
I don’t plan on giving up on my marriage any time soon. In all honesty, I couldn’t be happier with it. I’ve seen a lot of growth within my husband throughout our marriage. The man he is today isn’t the man I started dating almost 6 years ago. He has definitely matured and conquered a lot. Could we benefit from martial counseling? Yes, but I think even the healthiest, happiest of marriages can benefit from counseling. The key to making things work is willingness. Both parties have to be willing to try, willing to sacrifice, and willing to communicate. You have to be willing to accept the truth, husband or wife, with grace. Grace. Ugh. I’ve been working on that, too.
Advice: Pray for your husband (or fill in the blank). I can’t begin to stress that enough. If you haven’t seen the movie The War Room, watch it ASAP. It really instilled in me that my prayers over my husband are more important that I ever imagined. I’ve prayerfully made important decisions where I truly prayed over them before making decisions. And they have all worked out in my favor.
Prayer: God, thank you for your many blessings in our lives. Help us to reflect kindness, grace, and mercy as you would. Keep us strong and resilient against sin. Pour your love over struggling marriages. Give the weak strength. In your precious name, Amen.