Spouseisms for the Betrothed

Two couples that I am absolutely nuts over are getting married this year. God's hand is all over both of these couples. We are so excited for them.

There is wedding excitement at my house/suite! 

While 2 little girls are thinking about the weddings, I'm thinking about the marriages.

I've made it clear (in my profile to the right) that I love giving unsolicited marriage advice. :)  That said, they know I love them and will probably not be at all surprised about my shenanigans here on this blog.

Meet the couples: 

TARA & STEPHEN 

will say 'I do' in August. Are they not the cutest things? We have watched Tara grow up into a gorgeous, godly woman. Tara is captivating to all who meet her and my girls are no exception. They are smitten with her. Stephen, well, he had us at 'Hello'.  Maddy said, "If Tara doesn't marry Stephen, I'm going to." No joke. We must really love him, because we've given our blessing (not that they needed it) for Tara to move to England with her new husband. What an adventure! My girls are looking forward to being Junior Bridesmaids in their wedding. Tara has a great blog, A Brew of Blessings.

TARYN & REUEL 

are getting married in October. Look at them! They are radiant! Taryn was absolutely created for Reuel. With tears now I tell you that they love their Savior and adore each other. These two have been such a blessing to our family. And, they are brilliant. Seriously. Super smarties. Their kids that they aren't having (BAH!) are going to be prodigies. And beautiful--can you imagine what their offspring will look like? Blessed assurance.

__________________________________________

Here are some SPOUSEISMS for y'all:

 (Not all will apply, and some you have already heard over and over and over and over...)

-Make Bible study and church attendance a priority. From the beginning. Don't let other things creep in. It happens fast, so guard against it. There will always be laundry, the beach and beautiful days to tempt you. Keep Sundays for worshipping your Creator in a Bible-believing church.

-Leave and cleave. I don't mean geographically. Y'all are your own family unit.  All of y'all have excellent families that would encourage autonomy.

-Resist the temptation to put a TV in your bedroom. I read somewhere that couples with a TV in the bedroom have 30% less sex than those without. Just sayin'. 

-Limit friendships with single people. I didn't say 'remove', just limit. 

-Stephen and Reuel, tell her she's beautiful until she believes you. Which may be never. And do it in public.

-Tara and Taryn, (and Melissa), do not complain about your body to your husband. Feel free to tell me this anytime. Mark thanks you. :)

-Live beneath your means.

-Never say divorce. Just call it 'the terrible awful' like Minnie in The Help.

-Always say 'I'm sorry'.

-Go to some of those corny marriage conferences. Just do it, even if your marriage is healthy. It's worth the money. 

-If you ever even think about leaving, promise Mark and me 60 minutes. Even if it's 60 FaceTime minutes.

-For peter's sake, answer your phone.

-Take the longest honeymoon you can afford. While you're on your honeymoon, read Real Marriage by Mark Driscoll. Well, I probably shouldn't boss you about your honeymoon, but you get the idea. It's a good one.

-Call Melissa to check in once in a while.

-Reuel, say the last one with me..."Never let 'em get tired or hungry."

I love y'all more than White Chocolate Mocha.

Melissa

These spouseisms are by no means an exhaustive list. I'll be back to add more. 

Don't disown me for blogging about you.

_____________________________________________ 

What about the rest of y'all? Got any spouseisms for my friends?