Wedding Ivy

Thirty years and counting!  My kitchen window sill - wherever home has been - has enjoyed the companionship of pretty ivy flourishing in cute, colorful little pitchers and flower pots.

Here's my kitchen window sill at Birchbright:

The ivy is always the same...
It has been propagated from the very ivy adorning my WEDDING BOUQUET!!

Here it is thirty years ago:

Oh, I thought certain readers would enjoy this photo :>)

I'm so thankful that my mom all those years ago, took the initiative to try to root the ivy while I was away honeymooning. I remember her showing me what she had done, although she was a bit disappointed that there was only one lonely stemmed leaf with one lonely, little white root sprout.

I am not known for having a green thumb. (Many heads are nodding in agreement....)
Yet, somehow my ivy has thrived in spite of me :>)

I think it's because I've always had it on my kitchen window sill, under my watchful eye.
It just takes a quick second to check on moisture, whether it is planted in the soil or cuttings soaking in water. If there is a wilted leaf, a quick pinch takes care of it.  Perhaps lopping of leggy branches is required; at other times rooted cuttings need sorting and planting.

Like my ivy, marriage is to be kept under a daily, watchful eye.  Check for water... without the promise of nurturing and tending to a marriage, it withers.  Through the years, adjustments had to be made to pinch off attitudes that would be detrimental to our flourishing relationship.  Any tendency to be self-serving gets lopped off to reinvigorate our oneness in marriage. Extra attention is occasionally needed to nourish the marriage as life uses up so much time and energy.  But without sunlight, without the Light of our Lord in our lives, nothing else even matters! Gotta have light!

A young soon-to-be-married couple recently asked the Captain and me the secret of being married for thirty years.  Lol! I never had anyone ask that before.

After a quick thought, we said,

• Stay close to your Lord! As close as you are to the Lord, you will be that strong together.  The Lord is the one who created marriage...  He has soooo much to say about relating to one another.
• Always appreciate each other... out loud :>)
• "A happy marriage is made of two good forgivers."
• Be patient because the Lord isn't finished growing your spouse yet, just like yourself :>)
• Captain always says to treat your spouse with the same intensity of cherishing each other as when you were dating.

Ah!  We can say so much more!  How about you? Add any thoughts for a stronger marriage in the comments below.  I'd love to read them and put them to use <3