Solutions June 2019 | Page 23

ago, I said these words to her: Don’t spend so much time planning the wedding that you forget to prepare for the marriage. I, David, take you, Tamela, To hold from this day forward, For better or for worse, For richer or for poorer, In sickness and in health, To love and to cherish, From this day forward, Till death do us part. As it is with life, it is with love. Every mar riag e h a s s e a s o n s . Yo u will experience the summer of passion in cycles and stages of your marriage. During that season you can’t keep your hands off of each other. It seems like when you see them, you are immediately drawn to them as if it were the first time. Cherish the summer days so you’ll remember them when winter comes. Cherish the days when you can hold her hand on the beach, because there may come a day when you will have to push her in a wheelchair. There may come a day when it will be hard to come home at night because of the stress you feel outside your door. The summer season helps you push through it. You will have fall seasons as well. That’s when things begin to shift very quickly and what once provided shade and shelter is now withering away like the wind. In the fall you’ve got to learn how to change clothes, metaphorically speaking. In the fall season, you learn to value the layers of love. You learn to see your spouse for all the things they do to cover, protect, keep, and nourish you. You learn to appreciate all the things that make your spouse beautiful, even when certain things change. Like valuable wine, your spouse will age with grace. Solutions • 23