The Joy of a Successful Marriage

           As both me and my wife attended the celebration of the Holy Eucharist today, a couple took time to talk to the congregation before it ended. They were inviting the faithful to participate in their coming Marriage Enrichment Conference. While listening to their testimony, I heard that it was not at all romance and laughters in their marriage. They have been married for 22 years and they said that those years were not at all in cloud nine.

          They assured those who will be interested to participate in their conference of gaining wonderful learnings from competent speakers. Such topics as knowing the positive ingredients to a successful marriage, how to weather storms in a marriage, the secret of living a successful relationship and more powerful tools in marriage will be discussed.

          Reflecting on this invitation, I could say that In my own marriage of 9 years, I could positively attest to what they mentioned that after all, my own marriage is not all smooth and joy along the way. There were several trying moments in the past yet as a couple, me and my wife significantly tried to settle any disagreement first before going to bed. Recalling back those years, I just notice that one negative aspect of any relationship especially that of marriage is pride. When pride abounds in the relationship, it creates a distance and a gap between the couple and the longer that it is left unanswered,  the farther this distance has become. After a while, tempers will flare up even with just trivial matters, the feeling of being misjudged will occur and other stressful situations will happen. Consequently a mark of uncertainty will stump the relationship. And as days pass by, if there is no initiation either from the husband or the wife, tensions will become insurmountable and a possibility of losing everything will happen.

          Thus, among the many spices in marriage, I would single out humility as one of the most primary foundations to it. And when true love exists inside the hearts of the couple, humility and trust will also evolve. Each party should learn to forget oneself and reflect on a deeper way the situation of the other. When both husband and wife truly love each other, it is then easy for humility to be concretely expressed to each other.