Songs of Summer

I was 39 when my husband and I got married, but I still firmly believed in living “happily ever after”.  I thought marrying the right guy could make this happen, but it didn’t take long before I learned our marriage would be full of ups and downs.  Adjusting to each others habits and ways of doing life was hard and to add to that, my husband had to adjust to living with my two teenagers.   In our four years of married life, we have had great days mixed together with tough days.  We have had fun times when we feel silly and happy and other days when we’ve felt frustrated and annoyed with each other.  We have great talks and then times when neither of us can communicates what is bothering us. There have been days when he is concerned about low corn price while I am nagging him about remodeling the kitchen. Then I take it personally when he seems irritated or is in a bad mood.  It bothers me when he is quiet and withdrawn.  This has happened more as we’ve faced real challenges.  

“ The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” John 6:33 Do you ever make things harder than they need to be?  Way back when I was finishing college, my student teaching supervisor told me I do this.  She tried to soften her comment by adding that my teaching would become easier and more streamlined with time. There was no doubt leading a classroom was hard, but I couldn’t pinpoint how I was making it harder.  Thankfully, I did start to see some ways I did this and learned from my mistakes. For example,  I discovered it’s not a good idea to begin an art project to hang in the hallway on the afternoon of parent teacher conferences because of the stress and frustration it created when I tried! Unfortunately, I can make things harder on myself in other areas of my life too.  Because of this tendency, I am really appreciative when I look back and see how God has lined things up to make things work out for the best. This seemed to be th