Last month, I talked about how glad I am that the things that life has brought our way over the past year have made us stronger as a couple rather than pushing us apart. A comment left at the end of that post got me thinking about how glad I am to have a partner in life to share my joys and sorrows with. Jana said, "There was definitely great potential for our trials to drive us apart. But as long as we were trying and realizing that we needed to have the attitude of us vs. our trial instead of me vs. Dustin, it all worked out." I've been thinking about her comment since and exactly what it means for mine and Joe's relationship.
Last month, I talked about how glad I am that the things that life has brought our way over the past year have made us stronger as a couple rather than pushing us apart. A comment left at the end of that post got me thinking about how glad I am to have a partner in life to share my joys and sorrows with. Jana said, “There was definitely great potential for our trials to drive us apart. But as long as we were trying and realizing that we needed to have the attitude of us vs. our trial instead of me vs. Dustin, it all worked out.” I’ve been thinking about her comment since and exactly what it means for mine and Joe’s relationship.
Throughout our almost four years of marriage, we have definitely had our fair share of trials. Some of them have been us trials, and others have been individual ones, and at times, I’ve let those moments get to me and forgotten for a moment that we are in this together. When we moved apartments and the timing/situation wasn’t as convenient as I would have liked and last year when we purchased/renovated our home are probably the two moments that stand out in my mind as times when I let myself turn things into me vs. Joe chaos when I needed to remember that he was in the same boat and me rocking that boat was getting us absolutely nowhere.
There have also been times when we’ve taken on a challenge together, conquered it and come out stronger than ever! I know I’ve talked about this before, but just last year we went through so much with my last minute school schedule changes, a miscarriage and putting an offer on our house before we’d really planned to. The first three months of 2014 were filled with every emotion on the chart and there were quite a few times when I didn’t feel like I could take on any more, but Joe was there to buoy me up and show me that our problems weren’t really as bad as they seemed. His positive attitude and perspective during every situation we’ve gone through while we’ve been together always brings me back to reality and helps me see the good that can come from a struggle and that we can turn a weakness into a strength!
Joe’s trials become mine and my trials become Joe’s. Essentially, all of the trials that we go through are ours together and it’s like the quote, “Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow.” That saying is the absolute truth when it comes to marriage and remembering it makes marriage that much more amazing! I love having someone around to tackle every trial with. Two heads are better than one and together we can take on a whole lot more than if we tried to go it alone.