Looking to the Future

These past few weeks I have been reading two marriage help books, those are “The Seven Principles for making Marriage Work” by John M. Gottman and “Drawing Heaven into your Marriage” by H. Wallace Goddard. Both of these books have offered many new insights into my marriage that we hadn’t thought about before. I did find that these books focused more on how to keep your marriage from falling apart. Now, while Richard and I have argued about things in the past, it’s never been so out of control that our marriage came into question. That’s one of the things that I loved about Gottman’s book is that they don’t expect you to be perfect. Instead it’s about how you deal with all of your imperfections that matter. When Richard and I were dating we loved the song “All of Me” by John Legend. The chorus and second verse is our favorite part.

How many times do I have to tell you
Even when you're crying you're beautiful too
The world is beating you down, I'm around through every mood
You're my downfall, you're my muse
My worst distraction, my rhythm and blues
I can't stop singing, it's ringing, in my head for you

My head's under water
But I'm breathing fine
You're crazy and I'm out of my mind

'Cause all of me
Loves all of you
Love your curves and all your edges
All your perfect imperfections
Give your all to me
I'll give my all to you
You're my end and my beginning
Even when I lose I'm winning
'Cause I give you all of me
And you give me all, all of you

It’s important to remember that no one is perfect, and no marriage is perfect either. However, it’s when we put our imperfections together to create a brand-new whole that we can grow stronger as a couple and overcome the little things that could drag us down.

As I said earlier Richard and I aren’t perfect, but we are continually trying to be our best self’s and hopefully avoid the major problems. But when they come, I know that we are both better prepared to handle whatever comes our way.