Meli's world

I always wondered how missionaries felt when God called them to leave the comfort of their homes, families, safety, and churches to go somewhere unknown to preach the gospel. I wondered if they were scared. I wondered what would happen if they resisted and didn't follow the calling placed before them. Four years ago after living with my parents, we were able to purchase our first home. Somehow being a homeowner at the age of 23 gave me a sense of pride. The house was an answered prayer.  A lot of sweat, hard work and tears. This house signified freedom and peace to my family and I. We all went from sharing the master bedroom in my parent's home to having the privacy we wanted as a married couple. And the kids would share a room for now. I remember thinking this was only our starter home. It wasn't in the area we envisioned and at 2 bedrooms, it was also smaller then we wanted for our family. But the numbers worked out. God opened doors and worked everything in our f...

Note: I am a 26 year old woman who has been with my husband for 11 years and married 10. I am writing this in response to a column entitled "5 reasons we can't handle marriage anymore". I think marriage is one of the greatest relationships we can experience and wanted to paint a picture to the other side of the story. Marriages today can still work. The million dollar question? How? Its a pretty simple concept- you choose to love, to commit and share your life together. Our great grandparents and grandparents did it. and for many of us so did our parents. How can we? Many of you will ask what me gives me the right to share my opinion. I've been married myself. And I'm only one of the many people today who have succeeded at marriage. And while some of us have decided to persevere at marriage for better or worse, others have chosen divorce and convinced themselves they're better off. These same people, though, are quick to point the finger...

         I know conflict and cheating! Ooohhh controversial title for a post entitled Marriage is Awesome. My marriage is awesome! But I'd be lying to you if I said we are conflict free. Or that we are so perfect cheating is something we are completely exempt from. So to clear up misconceptions if you're a newly wed, engaged or contemplating marriage, don't look forward to a conflict free happily ever after kind of marriage. Instead be prepared and take some pointers from someone who thought each conflict was the end of her marriage. And as for cheating, its a temptation you may have to deal with as a married man or woman but there's so much you can do to prevent it. Broken doors, holes in walls, driving out in the middle of the night. Yup. Anger. Conflict. Disagreements. Marriage is not always awesome. And as two immature teenagers who have basically figured everything out as we went along, things weren't always hearts and cloud...