Stress. Life is full of it. This week I am feeling the stress of wedding planning. I feel as if Clay and I have been running around like crazy people hardly able to find even a moment to just pause and connect.
While I hate feeling stressed and crave a sense of balance and peace in my life, I know that stress is not something that is limited to the engagement period. I know that in marriage there will be plenty of seasons that will bring their own waves of stress.
So the way I see it, I have two options: 1. To wish away this season and focus on just getting past it. Or 2. To use this season – with all its stress – to practice growing in my relationship with Clay in the midst of it.
Choosing the latter is not easy to do. But I know it will be such a valuable investment in my future marriage.
We had our first session of premarital counseling this week, and one of the things our pastor said was that in his experience of marriage, there have always been seasons of stress – seemingly one right after the other. So if he had wished them away, just focusing on getting past each stressful season, he would have missed some great opportunities to grow together with his wife and stronger in their faith.
So as I am feeling the weight of stress, I will press on and strive to focus on my marriage and not just getting past this season. Because who knows what may await once we are actually married! Hopefully lots of wonderful things… But come what may, I pray I learn to use the stressful seasons of life to grow my marriage and to grow our relationship with Christ… and I pray that we would find joy not only in the peaceful moments of calm we have with each other but right there in the midst of our running around!
