Marriage is not always a honeymoon but we make it work!

Why did God create marriage? In Genesis 2:18: The Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him'...and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. God specifically made us for each other. Also it says in Malachi 2:16: "I hate divorce, says the LORD God of Israel." God made marriage to last a lifetime and only gave a few reasons that marriage should ever be broken; infidelity and abuse. Everything else you can work through, sure its not easy but marriage is not a walk in the park, its not always going to be a honeymoon. There are times when you may not even like your spouse but think back on why you fell in love in the first place. I know from personal experience that marriage is not easy. My husband and I have only been married a short 7 years but we have been through more than most people and we have fought hard for what we know is right. We got married young and had a baby right away, we had dated a long time, which I think is important to truly get to know the person you are wanting to spend the rest of your life with. My husband went into the Marine Corps right after college and right after our wedding. We were in six years and had 3 kids in that time frame. My husband went on two tours to Iraq and was gone 20 of 30 months after our first full year of marriage so we didn't get to ever get the feel for living together or being a family. Six months after he got back from Iraq the second time he started pushing us away and started suffering from PTSD. During that time he started having a relationship with another woman and our marriage hit rock bottom. We went through this for about 2 years, 1 of which he had the relationship, but I knew the man I married and knew that this was not him. I also knew what God wanted me to do, he wanted me to fight for my marriage so I never gave up. It took my husband going to the brig to open his eyes to what was wrong and what he was taking a chance on losing. After he got out we knew that we didn't want to give up what we knew could be amazing so we decided no matter what we were going to make our marriage work. We have been so happy ever since, of course we still have bad days and still go through tough situations but we know we love each other and know God is in this with us. Our faith has grown as well, mine over the course of all this because I knew I could always turn to God to help me with how I was feeling and what was going on. My husband found his faith again after he got out of the brig and now is going to be going to the seminary to become a pastor. Anything is possible with the help of God, it may take time and it may not turn out how you thought but it will always be better than you expected if you just trust him. The biggest thing that you have to remember is it has to take both of you to be committed to making your marriage work. We have friends and family that have been through similar situations and other situations dealing with money or hate issues that have not worked out and in most of those instances either they didn't want to put forth the effort or one of them was not willing to commit 100% to saving their marriage. You have to be willing to do things that won't always be the most comfortable for you or pleasing your spouse when you really don't feel like it or you think they don't deserve it. You have to put them first, be the bigger person and stop being selfish. We are after all selfish beings and we have to work at putting others first and loving them unconditionally. At the end of the day when you keep God in your marriage and put everything you have into your marriage you will be so much happier and your family will benefit greatly from your fight. Our children are so much happier and so are we, its not worth hurting so many people, in the long run if you give up, no one wins except Satan. There are lots of books out there that will help you, that is where I started, I wanted to learn how to make marriage work and also find out about people that had been through what I had and actually made it. Fireproof that movie is also another very good source that may help, there are books and handbooks that you can use off that movie too. 1Corinthians 13:4-8a, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."