This past weekend, my hubby and I went out for a day date. While we were out, he said something like, “If I were single, I’d be living in a sick apartment in Brickell.”

My reply, of course, was, “But aren’t you glad you’re not single?” 

His response? Pretty much sums up marriage. 

“Eighty percent of the time, being married is amazing. I love you, you know that. But ten percent of the time I don’t want to talk to you, and the other ten percent of the time I want to throw you into the bay.” 

Well, gee, thanks, I think? I guess 80/20 is a decent ratio. 

We’ve been married for six and a half years. Not a lifetime by any means, but long enough to see marriages shorter than ours not make it. We didn’t get pregnant until four and a half years after we were married (we waited a few years before we started trying and then it took a little while for it to happen), and we survived major construction on our house while also surviving pregnancy.  

There were bound to be rough moments. And there are bound to be many more rough moments.  He’s not perfect, and neither am I, by any means. 

I read an article a while back that talked about Generation Y and how we are such a paradoxical generation. We are capable, educated, socially conscious, multi-talented multi-taskers, and we have big ideas. But when those big ideas don’t work out exactly the way we have planned, we jump to the next one. 

And I feel like that is what is wrong with the way many people nowadays view marriage. If we can’t put a Band-Aid on it or if it doesn’t make us feel good, we toss it. And on to the next. But marriage isn’t easy. Nothing ever worth it is easy. 

The best advice I ever heard about marriage was at a friend’s wedding. The priest said, “Love is not a feeling. Love is a decision. You don’t always wake up in the morning feeling good and happy and in love. The same way you sometimes don’t feel like going in to work every day, but you get up, put your pants (or skirt) on, and do it. That’s marriage.” Make a conscious effort. If you feel happy more often than you don’t, then it’s worth the fight.  

Because love isn’t just a feeling. Love is most certainly a choice. Feelings are fickle, and so are humans. And we are humans, aren’t we? So every morning, I wake up and I make the decision to love my husband, no matter how bad the day before was. And I have to say, my husband makes that choice daily, as well. Every day for us starts off as a clean slate. And when you make the choice to love, love continues to grow. It makes the percentages my husband was talking about, that 80/20, get a little closer to 100/0. It might never reach 100/0, but 80/20 isn’t half bad. It’s definitely better than 20/80 or even 50/50. 

So what am I trying to say? The work is worth it. If you can make it through the hard times, you’ll come out so much better on the other side. And look for the love in every day. 

It’s worth it. 

xo, 

P.S. I am not telling you to stick it out if you are in an abusive or unhealthy relationship. There are some situations that love can’t fix or take care of.