Behaviors in marriage

I was deeply touched by this video that I watched this week. In this first clip you will hear Elder Wirthlin tell a story about an elderly man painting his wife's nails.  I found this to be so tender and even though I know my husband would never paint my nails now I hope that one day when I am old and feeble he will polish my nails.

I just love Elder Wirthlin.  What a sweet and tender testimony of love he shared in this talk.  My favorite line was when he said, "Do you love the Lord? then spend some time with Him."  The imagery of this has left an impression on me.  I do love the Lord but I don't spend enough time with him.  I feel like the same can be true for my husband and children.  I love them and I spend most of my time with them but I fear that too often it is in body only and I am not fully engaged.  I need to spend more quality time with them.

I could not get over the tenderness Elder Nelson showed in supporting Elder Wirthlin through the end of his talk.  How appropriate that while he was speaking about love an Apostle of the Lord showed us what that truly means.  Our general authorities are great examples of what it means to serve and love unconditionally.

I am once again reminded of how blessed I am in my own marriage.  I don't know why some people end up in bad marriages.  I have had friends who marry someone only to find out that they are not at all the person they thought they were.  My situation could not be further from that.  I knew I was marrying well but as time goes on and as we approach our sixteenth wedding anniversary I am more and more grateful for my husband.  He is all that is good.  The way he balances work family and church is amazing to me.  While I was reading about the things that cause problems in marriages I was able to also see how my husband combats them.  In his book, The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, John Gottman tells us that he believes that the secret to a successful marriage is that a husband and wife are genuinely great friends.  This to me was very exciting because my husband is my favorite person on the planet.  My husband works across town and has a healthy commute.  He is also our Bishop so between the two we don't see much of each other during the week.  I love Friday nights when I know that we get to hang out together for the weekend.  I am confident that my marriage will succeed because my husband is my very best friend.  He is the master at diffusing the four horsemen that I seem to want to invite into our relationship.  I love him for this and this week I have felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude to my Heavenly Father for allowing me to spend Eternity with him.