Why get married?

Happy February 1st! 

Today not only marks the first day of a tiny, precious, pink and red little month - but also marks 16 months of marriage for Derrick and me. Woot!

16 months.

 I feel like it's flown by.

 I also feel like we've been married forever. In a good way. 

An intertwined, can't-remember-life-before-you kinda way.

So, with Valentines Day around the corner and 16 months of marriage to celebrate, I ponder what I think marriage is all about. 

Why want it, search for it, choose it? 

For me, it's about having a partner in life. A person. A best friend. Someone to discuss things with. Someone to make decisions with. Someone who fills in my blanks and strengthens my weaknesses. Someone who has my best interest at heart. Someone who helps put things into perspective.

It is not good for man to be alone. We crave someone to bounce ideas around with. We crave someone to talk to. We crave someone for us. We crave someone to fill the loneliness, keep us warm at night and offer companionship. 

For me, it's also about having someone to hang out with. Someone who's my biggest fan and my best friend. Someone I can watch tv with at night. Someone I can go on vacations with - and who will, while we both live, be there to laugh about the memories.

And it's about family. Building a home. Having traditions and responsibilities. One day having kids who are ours. Who have our quirks and traits and oddities. Our little unit. To build each other up. To always be for each other. To love each other and annoy each other. To make memories and traditions and mistakes. To share lots of love. 

 Sure, my friends are an amazing blessing, and I share something special with each of them. They each understand a different piece of me and,with many of them I have even more memories than I do with Derrick. But they have their own lives. Lives that sometimes intersect with mine, but aren't intertwined. 

It's not so with Derrick. His life and mine are the same. They are irrevocably intertwined. 

And our children are going to be amazing and awesome and weird and quirky and unique. And I'm going to love the heck out of 'em. And I hope we have many traditions and family nights and adventures and memories. 

But one day they will grow up and move out and have their own lives and jobs and friends and memories and loves and families. 

And there will be Derrick. My other half. My partner. The one with whom I look ahead. The one with whom I will look back. His life and mine are the same. They are irrevocably intertwined.

 

So...yeah...that's just one girls opinion of why many of us desire marriage. And why I think God put that desire in our hearts. 

I'm sure there will be many more love and marriage posts this month. 

Until then...