We stumbled through our first 7-10ish years of marriage (it’s a blur – could be longer, could be shorter). Perhaps stumbled is a generous term 😉. We turn the corner on 20 years in a few months, and I can’t imagine us without the stumbling. Those of you in that thick wrestle: it has the potential to forge deep roots that the rare-but-“happenstance” ease and seeming quietude we covet within a relationship often won’t.
We fought for the ease of these days with each other; it didn’t just happen. (And, in truth, many days we forgot the battle wasn’t against but *for* each other).
Right around our 19th anniversary, a phrase dropped into my head: “marriage 3.0.”
That term bouncing around in my head has me signing up again: to know this man in deeper ways, to have more uncomfortable conversations, to expose the fissures. I don’t want to retire to what feels like a deep, rich marriage … when there could be more.
So, naturally, the research geek in me starts with more reading 🤓. Help me out: below are some of my recent favorites. Add to my list.
🔘 The Meaning of Marriage, Keller (gold. just gold)
🔘 Vertical Marriage, Mike & Anne Rizzo (deep wisdom from ones who have personally counseled us in our marriage)
🔘 Love & War, Eldredge’s (many angles I haven’t seen in other books)
🔘 The Power of a Praying Wife, O’Martian (resurrected this one from the archives for 2021)
🔘 100 Ways to Love Your Wife, 100 Ways to Love Your Husband by Matt & Lisa Jacobson (every married couple needs this book pairing)
🔘 NEXT UP: Cherish, Gary Thomas (but first I need to steal it back from my forward-thinking teenager 😂)
