Today is my sixteenth wedding anniversary and I was thinking about how much I appreciate my wife and what she means to me. She is on a missions trip with our church right now so we will not be able to celebrate tonight together. Someone asked me how I was doing with my wife being gone for sixteen days and I told them that I love it when she leaves. They looked at me kind of funny and then I explained to them why I felt this way. When my wife leaves out of town, I use that time to reflect on what she means to me and not what she does for me. (although it sure would be nice if my clothes washed themselves and hot cooked meals were on the table every night when she’s gone) 🙂
It is always easy to quantify what someone means to you when they are not around if they do a lot for you but its not so easy to really ask yourself why you are married to the person you are with especially on an anniversary when you are not with your spouse. The statement “why you are married” seems to always be used when you are mad at the other person or evaluating the pain they caused you because of a negative situation. You think of what life would be like without them or the responsibility of having them in your life. I want to challenge you to not look at the statement “why am I married to…” as a negative but to start to see it as a positive. Why am I married to Yolanda? She completes me, she laughs at even my stupid jokes, she thinks of me first but loves God more than me, she knows who she is and what her role is in our family and the most important one, she doesn’t hold grudges when she has a right to sometimes when we argue. I love my wife because she makes me WANT to love her and lead our family in a Godly direction that is considerate of her feelings.
I encourage you to make your own list of “why’s” about your spouse today and not just think of what they do FOR you but who they are TO you. Needless to say, I am having a wonderful Anniversary day without my wife…but I will be glad when she gets home on Tuesday. 🙂
Holy Crap 
Love that provokes action! My wife does not have to make me love her or do things for her. The way we love each other makes me WANT to do those things. Its the same with my relationship with God. She is the best example I’ve known on how the bride of Christ (me) should love the groom (Christ). Good stuff Brian.
Brian, I too am anxiously waiting for Yoli to return. She is a wonderful wife to you, and she brings all those same qualities to her friendships. Your post makes me want the kind of marriage you describe, and to be that kind of wife should God decide to allow me to marry at some time in the future. Thanks for letting the whole world know what a really great person Yolanda is, and if she loves you that much, you must be a great guy as well.