I'll walk beside you forever

On our walk home today, Taryn and I passed this lovely couple out for a walk and doing their errands together. The women had a couple of bags that I presume were full of groceries and the man carried a bag full of oranges. I watched as they held on to one another with every step they took, acting as each others helper. We stopped at the cross walk and they stood next to us as we waited for the light to turn. He spoke gently to her, barely above a whisper. My mind wandered as I began to make up their background story. They've been married for years and have grown together as they have faced many trials and triumphs. They've learned more about each other than they know about themselves. With just a simple look, they speak 1,000 words. Love has tied them close together. The children they've had have tied them even closer. They understand how precious life is and that living in those wonderful moments is what makes life so special.

I thought about how many times Tyson and I have painted pictures of what we want to be like when we are older, and wiser too. We talk about being able to play tennis together, well past the age of 60. We talk about what our children will be doing, and how we want to be able play with our grandchildren. We talk about what is most important to teach our children and how we can be good examples to them. We talk about keeping that spark between us alive, and how it takes work to make a marriage successful. We talk about being one of those couples who sit next to one another and can't help but touch- an arm to an arm, a knee to a knee, a hand to a hand.

We are not perfect. We haven't been married for years & years and we can't give the best marital advice because we just haven't experienced everything yet. But what we do know is that marriage is about a special team made up of two people and just like any other team, we need to practice to make it better and better.

We recently read this article about Marriage called "What Happily Married Couples Do" and thought that it offered some wonderful advice that we have tried to apply to our marriage.

I'm so glad that I get to walk beside Tyson, forever.