Supportive Vs Challenging

While watching a comedy on TV today I came across a comparison between two types of couples - One the wife is always supportive of the husband and in another the girlfriend is always challenging the boyfriend on various grounds like views on work, life, relationship. The boyfriend argues that being challenged helps them grow and bring out the best in eachother but agrees that support is vital and essential.

Got me thinking, we all value being supportive to our spouse very highly. I for one, would like to have an idealistic view and dream of being a perfectly supportive wife through just about everything. I am learning however that it is good to be open and welcoming to a challenge on views as well - Its what keeps us evolving and growing in maturity and love.

I think its important that on the core issues of life and in our outlook we need to be able to support each other strongly even at the cost of friction with family or friends. Between us though we could challenge each other to see things from each others perspective becuase Love I believe seeks to understand life from the other persons shoes and appreciate them for it!

Dear Mister God this is @ina. . . May we always bring out the best in eachother.

Love and Convenience

One of the things I am learning is that Love does not always go down the road of convenience or stick to norms of this is how i am or this is what i can do or cannot do. To love means to go out of the way for the other person, to love them they way they would like to be loved - be it spending more time doing things they like, or taking time to listen or extending warmth to others in the family... In simple words doing in love the things that we know will put a smile on their face whether we 'like' to, are 'able' to, 'qualified' to, have 'experience' to, (or any other excuse we can come up with ;)) to do it or not.

In a good marriage there is love and respect between the couples and a great deal of give and take. What separates a good marriage from a great marriage I think however is the ability to love beyond convenience consistently and go the extra mile for the other person even when it isn't easy with a smile. The difference is made in the simple everyday choices we make and not necessarily the big ones involving family or future or finances.

I think marriage has a lot of comfort in it, in the sense there is the security, calm and convenience that it brings into our lives however I am also challenging myself to look for ways to stretch myself, to grow, to experiment with new experiences and things that I hope will add joy and laughter to our life.

Dear Mister God this is @ina... May we have a great marriage! :)