Marriage Advice from a Silly Source
Ray and I were a day late completing one of our Thanksgiving traditions. We started the 1947 black and white Miracle on 34th Street on Thanksgiving Day, but we had to finish it on Friday. It was one of those times that we couldn’t fit it all in.
Our ancient videocassette of the movie begins with the trailer which is a trailer within a trailer. The scenario involves the producer seeing the trailer for the first time. He is incredulous that the movie could possibly live up to all of the words his staff has used to describe it. They call it:
- Hilarious
- Romantic
- Delightful
- Charming
- Tender
- Exciting
After his first view of the trailer, the producer insists that one movie can’t be all of those things. After he sees the movie itself, he decides that they are right.
Miracle on 34th Street tells the story of two people who struggle as they learn to love and respect one another in spite of their differences. By the end, it appears that they will live happily ever after. Personally, I’ve never known anyone who lived happily ever after — if ever after means every second of every hour of every day of every year in a whole lifetime together. Everyone I’ve known who has had a happy marriage has learned how to choose happiness again after times when they are sad — or angry or frustrated or disappointed or _________. You fill in the blank.
Keys to the switch from sad or angry or frustrated or disappointed include:
- Forgiving,
- Choosing joy,
- Making fresh starts, and
- Deciding daily to be hilarious, romantic, delightful, charming, tender, and exciting.
So, as those who have been chosen of God,
holy and beloved,
put on a heart of compassion,
kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;
bearing with one another, and forgiving each other,
whoever has a complaint against anyone;
just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.
Beyond all these things put on love,
which is the perfect bond of unity.
Colossians 3:12-14
I believe one thing that makes living happily ever after seem so difficult to those of us in the thick of it is that so many times we feel as if everyone else IS in fact living it. We tend to feel like we are the only ones struggling. I often wish I could be as happy as you always seem Charlene, but I know life can’t always be roses, even for you.
Thank you for making a difference in so many Momma’s lives.
Johnna
No, Johnna. It isn’t always roses. I love my age actually. Life still has many struggles, but I have lived long enough to know that you can get through them, long enough to see that God will keep His promises,long enough to know that suffering means He loves me enough to let me suffer for my ultimate good.