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This week my husband and I will celebrate our second wedding anniversary.

There are so many things we’ve learned and experienced in these two years of marriage that I will forever cherish. People always say, “The first year is the hardest.” Maybe we had it easy, but I have yet to experience a year of marriage that wasn’t all I have dreamed of and more. So, I’m going to talk about what I’ve learned in these two wonderful years being married to my best friend.

Marriage is one of the things I am most thankful our Heavenly Father designed for us to enjoy and experience here on earth. Thankfully, the Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to be married to my one-of-a-kind husband, Casey.

Some may say that each day of marriage is an adventure. While I have found that to be true, I have also learned that whether you are on an exciting adventure, or coming home to each other after an eight or nine hour work day, marriage is extremely fulfilling. Some of my favorite times being married to Casey have been spent at home, just the two of us.

I have never felt for someone the way I do about Casey, it’s hard to explain exactly how I feel about him. He is kind, good, loyal, loving, caring, he is my encourager, my teammate, he embodies all of the best traits. He is eternally minded. He is a disciple and a disciple maker. He is my home away from home.

Our relationship started out of attraction and compatibility and has grown into something so much more.

If there was a word greater than love, I would use it. It’s a feeling that is hard to comprehend. There isn’t a thing I wouldn’t do for Casey. I not only enjoy being with him, I feel like I might explode sometimes because of how much I love him. When we’re apart, I miss him. I cherish him. I have seen him at his worst, cared for him when he’s sick, and I have accepted his flaws. Dodging the hard or ugly parts of each other simply isn’t an option. We must acknowledge those things and face them head on.

When God created man he said, “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” (Genesis 2:18) Not that it didn’t before, but this verse means so much more to my married self than it did to single self.

As husband and wife, Casey and I are better together. We encourage each other to be the best forms of ourselves. When either of us stumble we are there to help each other up. A verse we had as a part of our wedding ceremony, Ecclesiastes 4:12 is a constant reminder of how we are to make each other better and stronger. It says, “And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.

Additionally, Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” When your marriage relationship is one that is established on the love and truth of Jesus Christ, it creates a oneness that is unparalleled.

That’s not to say those who are in Christ won’t experience trials. As Christians we are to expect hardship, our path is not an easy one. I do think, however, when we go through trials together rather than alone, it is more bearable.

In our first two years of marriage, we graduated college, moved three times, my dog-loving husband got me a kitty (that’s true love), bought our first home and travelled many places. There have been many changes and many huge decisions made. All of these experiences have been so much richer shared with Casey. As we approach our third year of marriage, I can’t wait to see what the Lord has for us, as long as we abide in Him, I know we can face anything, together.