FOUNDATION OF MARRIAGE IS A PROMISE

           It's the family time of year.  Yesterday, anyone who has a family reached out to them and either got together for Thanksgiving dinner or wished they could.  Family is the most important thing of all.  And the centerpiece of family, the linchpin around which it all evolves, is marriage.  So, let's talk about that.

            It's the lucky few who find themselves a match made in heaven.  The rest of us have to do it the hard way, if we're going to do it at all.  Love is never enough.  You have to work hard.  And even then, success is not what you thought it would be.

            Most people want stability in their lives, especially in their home lives.  Otherwise, it's not easy to figure out where you stand in this world.  But we want satisfaction, too.  And sometimes it's hard to bring stability and satisfaction together.  Most likely, in a stable marriage, satisfaction comes and goes.  Changes come along and they challenge you.  You meet the challenge or you don't.  Sometimes you go through periods of difficulty.  Through it all, the thing that keeps a marriage together is a simple truth.  We made a promise and we are going to keep that promise.  We'll work it out, no matter what.

            In the words of Thornton Wilder, "I didn't marry you because you were perfect.  I didn't even marry you because I loved you.  I married you because you gave me a promise.  That promise made up for your faults.  And the promise I gave you made up for mine.  Two imperfect people got married and it was the promise that made the marriage.  And when our children were growing up, it wasn't a house that protected them; and it wasn't our love that protected them—it was that promise."