Gratitude Monday – Thankful for silver and working for gold!

Gratitude Monday (GM) foot soldiers! Today I am so thankful that against many odds my husband and I were able to celebrate our 25^th wedding anniversary. There were many reasons that the odds were against us:

• I was 20 and my husband was 23 when we were married.
• We had a ready-made family: My husband became a father in his late teens and I had pre-teen siblings living with us.
• Neither one of us had parents who were good examples of healthy relationships.
• I was parentless and my husband was fatherless.
• We both suffered traumatic events in our childhood.
• We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

We often hear the old adage that God protects babes and fools. We were babies and we were at the very least naïve. If I ever doubted God existed, life has certainly proved to me that God IS real.

There is no doubt that my husband and I did the work to make it 25 years. The formula for a lasting relationship is simple (no matter how hard it is to implement):

• Swallow your pride.
• Individually, we put each other first; together, we put our children first.
• When we did not like each other much, we rooted for our number one team–our marriage.

There is no doubt God was ever-present. Of course we also believed that God helps those who help themselves. There were a few times that God worked way harder than we did. He did that via the many foot soldiers he sent our way. People who wanted our union to last surrounded us. People saw the specialness in our union, perhaps before we could.

So foot soldiers, as I bask in the celebration of the past few days in Play del Carmen, Mexico, I could not help to hold tightly to my husband. We thanked God and even high-fived each other on a silver anniversary that was well deserved. Now we have our eyes set on gold!

I am hopeful for that goal because we know each day we have to work to keep a healthy marriage. I am grateful for God, my husband and all of the foot soldiers who helped us make it to 25 years. Nothing can take the joy that shines through my eyes and the happiness that sparkles from my cheeks…not even a Monday!

Remember, gratitude improves attitude and increases your blessings. GM foot soldiers. GM!

Author’s note:

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Thanks for reading.

Jowanna