Part Five: It’s All Worth Fighting For
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​The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. — John 10:10
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​Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. — 1 Peter 4:8
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One of the decisions that we made very early on in our marriage is that we would have no back door. If marriage is walking into the front door of your house, then we wouldn’t leave ourselves a way of escaping out the back when things got hard. We knew, even then, that if we gave ourselves an out, one of us would take it. When things got hard and we wanted to run away, we would just bail. So instead, we erased the back door from the plan. We got rid of the self-destruct button.
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Why? With so many marriages ending way too soon, with so many folks taking the easy way out, surely we could do the same?
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No. No we couldn’t. We didn’t want to be a statistic. We didn’t want to end up like so many others. We knew from the beginning something that we share with you now:
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​Your marriage is worth fighting for. ​
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All the struggle, all the heartache, all the pain and regret and all the things. It’s all worth it. We are better people for it. We are a better couple because of it. We want to be one of the few who get to stand at the end and say: “We did it. We made it. Through all of it, the ups and downs, the good and the bad, for better or for worse (especially the worse), we stuck together.”
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But how? How do you do it? How do you make it through all the hard?
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​Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. — Ephesians 4:32
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And there’s your secret.
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Forgiveness. Forgiveness is the key. It’s the glue that keeps your marriage together. If you want a long and satisfying marriage, have a short memory. Give away grace like candy. Rain down mercy confetti. Forgive everything. If forgiveness is the glue that holds a marriage together, unforgiveness is the poison that destroys it.
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Remember you aren’t each other’s enemies. You’re in a love story set in the midst of a war. You’re not fighting against each other, you’re fighting with each other and for each other. Swords drawn, back to back.
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We might be in a battle for our lives, but together as one in our marriage, man, what an epic story. ​
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- Rich & Heather
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​Wow, that's the last part from the Dubays. A special thank you for their 5 part series. Who knows maybe they might turn in into a book someday with all that wisdom!