Jess Foreman

at 3/05/2013

at 3/04/2013

at 2/12/2013

at 2/09/2013

Jarryd and I just recently celebrated 4 years of marriage together on January 10th! Every year we have always made this time very special and it has been something we look forward to all year round. We save up money throughout the year just so we can splurge and get away from the craziness of life for a couple days. This was our first one to celebrate since having a baby and we were determined to not let that change anything! (Hoping we can stay faithful to this even after more chubby babies come along but regardless we WILL stay faithful to making it special!)

I was really heartbroken this year at the amount of people who questioned why we still made such a big deal about celebrating our marriage. "When you've been married as long as I have, you won't see the need to go through so much trouble," one person mentioned. Another who shares a very close anniversary date to ours (but far surpasses us in years) made it clear that they weren't even going out to dinner, stating that they never see the importance to fuss over making that day more special than any other day in the year.

Am I the only one who thinks these two outlooks on anniversaries is tragic?

Just to clarify, I am by no means stating that these two do not have a healthy marriage, (truly I don't even know very much about their marriage) I have no judgments to how they approach things in their relationship, and would never pretend to have marriage all figured out. But it really bothered both Jarryd and I that they would imply how pointless it was for us to make our anniversary special.

It also got me thinking... and this can be a dangerous thing!

If you agree with their stance let me ask you a few questions first:

Do you not celebrate anything else in life?

Birthdays? Graduations? Job promotions? What about your children? Do you not celebrate when they achieve their goals or are successful in their God given talents? What about sports? I bet I got you on that one... do you not celebrate when your beloved team makes it to the playoffs or wins a championship?

If you answered NO to any or all of those then I would say you fall into the small category of people who really don't make a big deal about things. However, I would challenge you to get to the root of why you don't find it important to rejoice in the life that God has given you.

I have a strong feeling, however, you said yes to most of those questions though... so now let me ask you one more:

What are the qualifications for something to be worthy of celebration in your life?

My guess would be... you have to love it, cherish it, value it, and also be proud of it!

So does your marriage not meet those qualifications?

God's commandment to us in marriage is not to just "stay together" but to continually and sacrificially show love to one another until death parts us. I believe ANY two strong willed people can be married for a lifetime. The number of years a person is married never impresses me... quality is more important than quantity! You can be married 50 years and have a lifeless relationship. Where's the big accomplishment there?

However, it is BEYOND impressive for a couple to be married for decades if they are even more passionately in love with each other at the end as they were in the beginning. That kind of marriage doesn't just randomly turn out that way... it takes an enormous amount of work and prayer.

Let me end with this... It's never too late to start a new thing! Who cares if it has been years since you have done something special... let this be the year you start a new tradition! Celebrate all that God has done in however many years you have been blessed by your spouse! In a culture that breeds commitment free relationships, your commitment to one another is to be truly commemorated and honored!

And don't just stop at anniversaries... Valentines Day is right around the corner! And so what if it's just a holiday created by Hallmark and jewelry stores to make a profit... let them! Any holiday that encourages couples to romance one another will have a fan in me! Jarryd and I already have the babysitter booked! Do you?