Stages... of Marriage or Love

Marriage can be a funny thing. In just a few days my husband and I will celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary. We got married very  young and we've both done a lot of changing through the years. And today I wanted to share a funny with you all. I call this the stages of marriage or stages of love.

The first stage- I know you all remember at the beginning of your relationship you just couldn't be around each other enough or tell each other how much you loved the other.

After  you've been married a while you enter into stage two where a plain "I love you" will work.

Then comes stage 3 = and that is where when leaving a room to take a shower or such - just the word "Love" is said.  

My husband and I joked this morning about stage 4 - I said well we've run out of words so I guess it's time for hand gestures- then a discussion on what kind of hand gestures - the "I Love You" one or something else. Uhm...I think that the "I love you" sign will work.

As anyone who has been married for any length of time know that marriage can be a roller coaster ride. Sometimes it's up and sometimes it's down. Sometimes it's good sometimes not so much. But I would like to think that maybe once a relationship gets to stage 3- "Love" then maybe just maybe it'll be time to go through the cycle again.

One thing to be aware of -
I have a friend(I say that loosely because we have not spoken in years now) that gets married and then once the relationship is past stage one - it is time to move on. I guess she feels like she has fallen out of love. And the only result of this is that she has been married many times. And I don't know if she will ever settle down and be ok with going through the roller coaster - called marriage. You have to get through the downs in order to enjoy the highs. Hold on - if you are in stage 3 of marriage and just don't feel that deep love connection- hold on. Because changes could be coming along any time. Pray about it and allow God to work on you - there is hope- especially when we got God involved!