This past August, Luke and I celebrated our three year wedding anniversary. WOOHOO! The past three years have been a blast as we learned how to navigate our new life together.
In those three years I learned that Luke is quite the handyman, he is adventurous and loves to travel, he is a night owl, he is analytically minded, he enjoys his garage time and he makes me want to be a better wife each and every day. This very small list doesn’t even begin to touch the wonderful and neat things I’ve learned about Luke during our marriage.
Marriage has been really wonderful but at times can also be tough and trying. As Luke and I go through new seasons in our marriage, the decisions we make together and the way we react to situations really allows us to get to know the other person better.
As I reflect back on our time spent getting out of debt together, I am reminded of how hard we fought to stay intensely focused and how difficult the journey was in general. During the seven months that it took to pay off $57,000, I had noticed qualities and attributes in Luke that hadn’t been as apparent during our first three years of marriage.
One of the neatest and newest things that I have learned about Luke, during our debt free journey, is that he is good about enjoying the process that it takes to reach any goal. If I’m being honest, I was so excited to be debt free that I tried to eliminate EVERY single unnecessary expense to our new budget (ie eating out, movie theater dates, vacations, traveling, buying clothing…).
Although I had good intentions, Luke helped me to realize that, if we wanted to see success in this area of our life, we would need to set aside a small amount of money to go on dates and to do things together. So, we both compromised and set aside a small amount of money to go on a date together about once a month while tightening down on our budget. During that time we also enjoyed a lot of free activities together like hiking and kayaking. We had a blast together and enjoyed the process while spending a lot less money than normal.
Often times, I get so focused on the finish line that I forget to enjoy the moments passing by. Sometimes, especially during uncomfortable processes, I actually wish away the days until the journey is over. That’s definitely what I did when we first started our debt free journey. It is such a sad thought that I had wished away all of the wonderful moments God had blessed my marriage and my life with during the first few months.
I am really blessed to have a husband and best friend that has helped me learn that enjoying life is all about enjoying the journey, not just the end result. I will remember to enjoy all of the days and moments that God has blessed us with: to spend precious time with the ones we love doing the things we were appointed to do.
