Love and Marriage, Love and Marriage go together like a ...

**Addition to original post: click HERE to see the marriage challenge made by Christine at Fruit In Season**

Marriage...what a topic! Since I am 2 years young to the marriage experience, I like to talk about it. I still have all of those young wife qualms to work out. There are so many things I could do differently! I could do better with laundry, weeds, being submissive (yeah that is a biggy, my personality tends to be a tad bit strong), being respectful, & handling money like my husband wishes I would (although I have come a LONG way in the money department from where I was when he first met me)! It is not that I do not do some of these things well some of the time. I just can not do ALL of these things well, ALL of the time! I know that our God does not expect that but I get so mad at myself sometimes.

I have said this before but I will say it again, I thought I would be the perfect wife and then....I got married! Marriage discussions have been floating all around the blogosphere! I think it is God's way of telling us something ladies!! We have to step up and be the wife that he calls us to be. We have to work! work! work! on the subject. Our marriage should be really high on the priority list. Honestly, let's think about how often we allow it to be.

Let's talk about nagging. I think there is a perception issue with the term nag or nagging. What our guys perceive as nagging, I like to refer to as constructive suggestion making. Our husbands translate it much more differently than we do. We simply want to help them remember. After all, we know their hearts desire is to make us happy...so of course they would want us to remind them!??

Over at Beth Moore's blog (click HERE to see it) she has left us with some good finds from some sort of survey that she gave to several men. I really enjoyed this blog entry as well as the comments. My favorite comment was the one of the ones relating to intimacy:
My husband and I will celebrate 6 adventurous years at the end of July; while in seminary early on in our marriage at a women's event at our church a woman once said this in regards to INTIMACY - there are Snacks, Dinners,and Banquets. Snacks are short, Dinners are longer than snacks and Banquets, well, that might me a few hours worth. My husband and I loved that so much that it's the lingo we use.

My girlfriends and my husband got a good laugh out of this one! I just had to share. :o)

So in closing I feel like I need to reveal a list of things that I feel I want to work on to make sure that my husband feels that our marriage is priority to me:

1. I want to be more agreeable. If I do not agree just think it rather than feeling my opinion is always needed. If I turn out to be right just enjoy thinking about it too :O)

2. Make sure Brandon knows I appreciate him and respect him! He works so hard and is so dedicated to providing for our family for the long run. I respect that and I am very thankful for it!

3. I would like to brag on him more when he is around as well when he is not. This man cleans our bathrooms sometimes and pulled weeds for me the other day. What's not to brag about??

4. Pray for him every day sometimes more than once a day! I heard from Beth's survey conclusion and I have heard from many other areas... Nagging and trying to change him is not going to work. I will have to get down on my knees and discuss it with the Lord if there is a true issue that I/we need worked out! It is the only way.

There is a tidbit of a verse that I think I can get the most clear instruction and reminder from:

Love is patient, love is kind. 1 Corinthians 13:4

Those are the two things that would help me to go a long way in my marriage!