One Year of Marriage to the Most Wonderful Husband in the World!

Today is Chris and my FIRST wedding anniversary!

One year ago today was the happiest, most joyful day of my life -- the day I became Mrs. Christopher J. Miller, the day I gained the most wonderful husband in the word, the day so many family and friends shared in our joy, the day we became One before the Lord, the first day of the journey we will walk together for the rest of our lives.

Sometimes it feels like Chris and I are still brand new newly-weds, and sometimes its hard to remember life before our marriage.  Our wedding, on the other hand, always feels like yesterday to me.  One year later, and I can still talk for hours about our gorgeous wedding like it was yesterday.  I want to remember every detail... some would probably say I do remember every detail.

Our wedding was absolutely gorgeous, but every day Chris and I work to have a marriage more beautiful than our wedding.  Its going to take work, because, if you ask me, our wedding was the most beautiful wedding that has ever been (every woman should feel that way about her wedding).  :-D  I guess that means we will just have to have the most beautiful marriage that has ever been too.

In an effort to do exactly that, have a beautiful, great, Spirit-filled marriage, Chris and I had a very focused talk a few nights ago specifically discussing our first year of marriage.  We have had a wonderful first year of marriage, but we both agreed that our marriage could only benefit from reflecting together on our first year of marriage and specifically discussion three categories:

• I love it when...
• I don't like it when...
• A huge red flag I have is...

We had about a week to think, pray, and create our lists for each category, and the lists were meant to be about our first year of marriage and our marriage as a whole.  My list included negatives about myself (i.e. "A huge red flag I have is when I snap at you (Chris) and our animals and its completely unwarranted.  I'm snapping because I had a bad day not because of anything you or the animals did.  That is a huge red flag for me because I don't want to speak to our children that way.") although my "I love it when..." list was only about Chris.

This was SUCH a wonderful conversation.  Nothing that was said totally shocked either one of us, but it was interesting to hear what specifically topped our lists of "A huge red flag" and "I don't like it when".  Neither one of us had long lists, so it was a great incite into each other to know that of everything my husband could write that he doesn't like, this is his biggest annoyance.  I can focus on one of two of those things and really make an effort so that next year, when we have this discussion on our second anniversary, he doesn't have to list that again.

Also, in addition to pin-pointing things to change, it was SO nice to hear specific things that each of us do that the other loves.  I commented to Chris that I'd like to type of the comprehensive list that we created because I think I will have a better attitude about doing some of my household chores if I remember that my hubby specifically loves it when I do this.

Creating the picture collages for this post served as such a wonderful reminder of how wonderful this year has been.  We have experienced so much, been places, tried new things, met new people, visited family, created our own family, created our own home, had our first married inside jokes, our married first arguments, our first married reconciliations... we've learned more about each other in this first year than we ever could have imagined and we are more in love now than we were one year ago. 

Happy Anniversary, Hubby!
I love you with all of my heart and more.

You are my forever.
"Where you go, I will go; Where you stay, I will stay; Your people will be my people, and your God, my God; May the Lord deal with me ever so severely if anything but death separates you from me." -- I still mean it!