Vacation

I've been thinking a lot lately.  Thinking about how couples lose their way.  I've had several friends confide in me lately that their marriages are having problems.  Some may even be headed for divorce.  The thought truly breaks my heart.  So with all of this surrounding me I got to thinking.  How did they get there?  Well, there's no way for me to know, but I can make some guesses.  One thing that is common among my friends is that they have either not taken vacations or not many.  I really thought on this a lot as we prepared to go on our vacation.  Vacation is hard, often not relaxing.  We go thinking we're going to relax and end up needing a vacation from our vacation.  But still, I think it's so important.  And I mean vacation.  Not just a yearly trip to Grandma's or something.  Go somewhere fun.  Go as a family.  Plan it together.  Get excited together.  It gives your family as a whole unity and something to look forward to, and something to look back on together.  I think if you stay in the grind all the time and never take time for a vacation you forget what having fun together is about.  Life becomes about work, the house, the kids, the incidentals of life.  The laundry is piled up, why don't we have any money?, He's gonna be late AGAIN?  Why am I always stuck taking care of the kids?  Why doesn't she get dressed????  You get the picture?  And then it begins...  The resentment bug.  The number one killer of marriages.  I read a blog today and she was talking about something easy to do to strengthen your marriage.  She mentioned that she has one of her passwords set to "I love Mikey"  or something like that that reminds her.  Sounds silly, but it's a mind game.  You have to type that in daily, often several times and you forget why you "don't".  I already do this, but I have a note on my computer home page that says just that.  So everyday when I log on my computer the first thing I see is "I love Mikey".  Sounds Junior High, sure, but you know what?  Who cares?  It keeps us young~!

Here's praying that your marriage is stronger than ever, and if you're one of my friends that is having marriage problems, know that I will pray for you to be reconciled with your spouse.  Until the end.