When Marriage is Hard

Today is my parent's 33rd wedding anniversary, and I'm so grateful to see the journey of their marriage. It wasn't an easy one.. a lot of challenges, a lot of fights, a lot of tears.. but at the end I can see that their relationship grow stronger and they keep loving each other until now :)

I still remember when I was a child, when my parent had a big fight and they almost wanted to give up on their marriage (surprisingly I still can remember that moment!) but thank God they decided not to give up and I can see how God restored their marriage beautifully.. Can you imagine what would happen to me and my family if they decided to give up?

Marriage is hard.. yes, I agree with it. Even the Bible says that those who marry will face many troubles in this life (1Corinthians 7:28b). It takes a lot of hard work and efforts. It is not going to be easy, but it is all worth it :)

The first year of marriage between me and my husband was also very challenging, even until now. We still face a lot of trials, challenges, differences (and I think it is something that will never end until we die, haha..) but we can always choose how do we want to respond. Do we want to give up or do we want to let God shape us more through our spouse?

When I was still single, I remember someone said to me (or maybe in one of the sermons about marriage) that when we decided to get married with someone, we have to delete the word "DIVORCE" from our dictionary. So when we fight or when we argue with our spouse, or maybe when you feel that you don't love your spouse anymore.. the word "DIVORCE" would never be an option :) Instead, we will choose to fight for our marriage and make things right with our spouse..

But sadly, the percentage of divorce in the world these days is getting higher! I read one of the articles from theriches.com about World's 10 Most Divorced Nations, and here is the percentage in 2014:

10. USA: 53%

9. France: 55%

8. Cuba: 56%

7. Estonia: 58%

6. Luxembourg: 60%

5. Spain: 61%

4. Czech Republic: 66%

3. Hungary: 67%

2. Portugal: 68%

1. Belgium: 71%

This is something that we really need to pray for.. And if we are talking about world transformation, I think this is one of the areas that need to be transformed. My heart is broken when I see this percentage and I really pray so this percentage will go lower and lower in the following years.. Let's pray for every marriage who has been struggling with this, and also for their children, for our next generation.

When marriage is hard, turn to prayer. Pray for your spouse and ask help from God to enable you to love and forgive your spouse. It is hard, but nothing too hard for our God. He is able to restore your marriage and bring back all the love and joy into your marriage. Don't give up, and see greater things that God has prepared for both of you in the future! I'm praying for you right now.. xoxo