One Year of Marriage: Favorite memories and How We've Grown

Every time Andrew and I mention that we've been married for a year, we laugh a little because it definitely feels like we've been married longer...I think it's because senior year of college felt like forever. haha

For our one year anniversary, we went to Ohio for a friend's wedding and then went to Cedar Point on our actual anniversary date.

We spent some time (after riding roller coasters, of course) thinking back on the last year. We thought of some of our favorite memories and things we've learned. We also dreamed about the years to come and got super excited about all that God has in store for us.

Some of our favorite memories from this past year were:

1. Getting married.

Seriously the best day.

I realize I haven't shared much about our actual wedding day on the blog, but I think I honestly can not put that day into the right words. Being surrounded by our family and friends, singing together in worship, exchanging our vows, sharing in a time of communion with everyone, eating breakfast food, and dancing in pure joy...it was just so, so good. Andrew and I agree it was like a little taste of Heaven. Everyone--regardless of whether they knew each other or not, were bound by the same purpose for being together--the celebration of something God had orchestrated. Man...it was the best.

2. Setting up our first apartment together.

It became a sanctuary and place of comfort when school was hard. It became a place of laughter, tears, and creation of good food.

3. Having people over to our apartment.

Gosh, this was so fun. We had a Curry with the Currys at least once a month at school and it was sooooo fun. There was really good conversation and we enjoyed spending time with new and old friends.

4. Watching Spongebob and eating pancakes together on Saturday...or really any day we feel like it.

Some things we've learned this past year:

1. We have to protect our time together or it will not happen.

Both Andrew and I are Type A, determined, responsible, and like to be efficient and on top of our work. We also have trouble saying no to doing things.

We realized early on that if we didn't have specific times that were protected--as in belonged to us--it wouldn't happen. We also decided to take a Sabbath because we realized we were working too much on our homework/other responsibilities and not on each other.

2. Marriage is not about us.

Our marriage is about fulfilling a purpose within God's Kingdom that can not be accomplished if we are on our own. Andrew and I know our calling to become married was not just to fulfill our own desires, but to fulfill our Father's desires, too. We truly believe our marriage (and every marriage) should be a reflexion of the church's relationship to Christ and, ultimately, of God's goodness, love, and holiness. Marriage is such a holy thing, and after just one year we're just beginning to truly see how beautiful it is.

3. Always seek to understand before judging.

Before we react to something one of us has/hasn't said or done/hasn't done, we always ask why. We choose to trust that the other person is not trying to hurt us or make us angry and choose to seek to understand before reacting angrily. There is no reason to become angry at someone until you've sought to understand and talk through their side of the issue. Asking why and talking through disagreements or misunderstandings has saved us so much time, energy, and mental space.

4. Prayer is vital.

We pray together every morning and every evening when we are together. And, regardless of whether we are together or not, we pray for each other.

5. Laughing together daily is so fun.

We laugh daily. If we don't, we find a way to make each other laugh. Humor is so, so, so important. All it takes for me to start laughing is for Andrew to start whacking at a fly with a fly swatter...it's seriously the funniest thing to me. All I have to do to get Andrew laughing is to start singing in a country accent. He loves it....kinda.

Here are some questions we got on marriage that I thought were really good!

1. Anything drastically different than you thought it [marriage] would be?

Honestly, no. I guess the only really surprising thing was how natural it felt. It wasn't super awkward at all. We found marriage to be way less stressful and just overall more fun than we thought it would be!

2. What's the most surprising difference between dating and marriage?

Living together. haha

But really, we were super intentional when we were dating. We talked A LOT about marriage, our intentions, dreams, goals, desires, so there weren't a lot of huge surprises when we got married. Ultimately, the biggest difference was being truly independent. College gave us some idea of what that looked like, but when we got married it all became real. No more being dependent on our parents for money or groceries or scheduling doctor's appointments. WE were responsible for literally everything. At first we felt a little overwhelmed, but now we actually really like being independent. We also like being able to have our own space and have a cat. (:

For all you married people:

What do you love about being married?

What have you learned in the time you have been married?