Love That Lasts

The other day I was looking through the pictures from our Renewal of Vows ceremony last summer. It hit me that “renewing your love” is what marriage is all about. We live in a culture that thinks it’s possible to “fall out of love”, but in reality you don’t stop loving somebody overnight.

Nobody gets fit at the gym and then suddenly “falls out of shape” one day. We don’t get in bad shape from avoiding the gym for three weeks, but if we avoid the gym for three years we will end up in bad shape. Why does our modern culture believe that we can get married, focus on everything else but the marriage, and still be happy and in love with each other 5, 10 or 30 years later?

One of the things my husband and I do every year to work on our marriage and keep our love alive is read books together. Last year we read The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman and this year we are reading The Meaning of Marriage by Timothy Keller. Another important thing we do is pray together every evening. We pray and ask God to strengthen and deepen our love for each other. We pray over whatever challenges we are facing each day and we intercede for others who are going through a tough time.