I saw his hazel eyes, his brownish-blonde curly hair and his freckles right away. He had on a red t-shirt and I had on a purple dress. We were under the lights of a Luau. This would forever be known as the night I noticed my husband for the first time. There was something about him. Something incomparable from the guys I dated before. This something would later cause me to fall in love with this man and eventually become his wife.

Almost a decade has gone by, but a picture of this very night and those young faces of ours smiling ear to ear sits in a beige frame in our bedroom with words above, “Blessed!”

I gaze at this picture often. I pass it every day in fact. We were so young, naive, newly in love, hungry for life and purpose. We had no idea what the future would hold but we knew that we were going at it together.

Fast forward almost a decade, I can confidently say life has been something with this man that I never could have imagined. It’s been a grand adventure to say the least.

We have been through so much together in almost 8 short years of marriage. Two babies, 3 moves, a new city, new friends, a fresh church plant, and as of recently marriage counseling.

When our life gets crazy and quite often it does I think about what my husband said years ago to a room full of young-adult college students, “The decisions you make today are the stories you will tell tomorrow.”

Decisions and stories. These are what make up a marriage.

Our marriage story has been an ongoing, surprising, fun, and chaotic journey. I love the decisions we get to make together. I love the change we get to go through together and the future we get to decide together.

I love that we know how to lean in, listen, ask for help and show patience towards one another in ways only we know how.

I hope when our kids get older and they look at the young picture of us in the beige frame in our bedroom with words above, “Blessed!” that they feel at peace.

I hope they say to themselves, “Mom and Dad sure did do a lot and went through a lot but they did it together. They stuck together through the thick and thin of life and it is inspiring.”

I hope today you will hug your spouse. Take time to reflect on all that you have been through together. I hope peace and direction wash over the both of you. If decisions need to be made I hope you will take action to make them because there is no better time than now.

Your marriage story is unique, important, and can be used to help shape the marriages around you.

Your marriage is unlike any other story and the decisions you make today are the stories you will tell tomorrow.

What is that story going to be?