Marriage is a gift. Sometimes it doesn’t feel that way. Sometimes it feels like marriage is just another thing we have to work on or one more hardship in our day, but marriage is a gift. God picked out a man or a woman specifically for you to become one with. A person to be there for you, encourage you, and to love on you in the good times a the bad. One who can bring you closer to God and to help you more fully understand how much Christ loves the church.
I love to think about what the first marriage looked like. What was it like for Adam to wake up and see his bride for the first time? I heard a joke once that the word “woman” came from that exact moment when Adam saw her and shouted “WHOA MAN!” 
What an incredible gift he must have felt he was blessed with. He went from literally living life alone to having a partner and a friend. It didn’t take long for them to start fighting and accusing each other of wrong-doing (see Genesis 3:12), and I can’t imagine the fights that ensued after they were forced out of the garden, but they stayed together and were not left alone even through those hard times. In fact, they had more gifts to come from them with the children that followed.
Like any gift, we, as sinful people, can make it something that is not quite the intended outcome, but if we remember back to our wedding days, we can usually remember the blessing that our marriage is. The union of becoming one is an exciting, beautiful process that God was so good to create.
I try and celebrate my marriage everyday, but our anniversary is always exciting. It is another year that we can say “We did it! And we are still going strong!” It’s another year that we can contemplate the vows that we spoke and how we will continue to fulfill them. And it’s another year that we can say thank you to God for the precious gift He has given to us.
I’ve discussed before that marriage is not something we should do alone. That it is a community effort and something we can both celebrate and receive help in. As Matt and I draw close to our anniversary on July 14, I want to celebrate the milestone of our 5th year with more than just us. I want to celebrate it with all of you too! I set up this blog to help others, but I found that it often helps me more! This blog has created an amazing community of people that pray for us, love on us and that somehow sometimes learn from us too! So here’s how I want to celebrate YOU and give a gift to YOU for being a helper in our marriage…
My friend, Emilie Gorman, is a talented graphic designer who has a fun Etsy shop called Yellow Desk Designs (You can also visit her blog HERE). She specializes in cute prints and I personally ordered one of our vows that I will show you soon! Emilie was gracious enough to sponsor a giveaway with one of my favorite prints that she makes, personalized just for you! Want to win one? Keep reading!
HOW TO ENTER
There are 2 ways to enter this giveaway (the more ways you participate, the better chance you have to win!):
- Post a Facebook status that says:
“I want to win a personalized anniversary dates print from the Mystery32 giveaway! http://wp.me/p1BWSI-gz”
(Make sure you tag Mystery32 in your post or I will not be able to see it!) - Tweet: “I want to win a personalized anniversary dates print from @Mystery32blog! http://wp.me/p1BWSI-gz”
Giveaway details:
- Contest runs from July 2nd to July 14th
- I will use a random number generator to select the winner from all tweets and Facebook posts and announce them on Monday, June 16th.
3 Comments