{"id":968,"date":"2012-06-14T00:43:51","date_gmt":"2012-06-13T21:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/?p=968"},"modified":"2013-09-11T13:37:14","modified_gmt":"2013-09-11T10:37:14","slug":"15-lessons-from-15-years-of-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/15-lessons-from-15-years-of-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Lessons from 15 Years of Marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking back to our wedding, 15 years ago today, I’m more in awe than ever at God’s merciful hand in leading me to a beautiful and godly woman. Honestly, I was head over heals in love and had little clue what marriage meant for me, all I knew was that I just wanted to get married to this one pretty Ukrainian girl really, really badly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Christina and I on our wedding day, June 14th 1997<\/p><\/div>\n

I wouldn’t say we’ve ever had a bad marriage, but we’re both born sinners in desperate need of change. Thankfully, God has changed us both a lot over the past 15 years. I thought this would be an appropriate time to share some of the lessons God has taught me through marriage to a truly wonderful woman.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Enjoying some time together in the Carpathian mountains<\/p><\/div>\n

I decided to keep the list down to 15, one for each year of our marriage!<\/p>\n

1. Marriage is probably the greatest tool beside the Bible that pushes me towards godliness.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0My wife is way smarter than me in many areas of life and I have no problem with that.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Forgiveness must be a way of life because neither of us are perfect!<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0It’s just as important, and sometimes as difficult, to learn to forgive as it is to learn how to accept forgiveness.<\/p>\n

5. A hurtful word can never be completely taken back.<\/p>\n

6. I always try to tell my wife I’ll be home an hour later than I think and if I’m lucky I make it home 10 minutes before I told her I’d be home.<\/p>\n

7. I need to pray with<\/span> my wife and pray for<\/span> my wife every day.<\/p>\n

8. I simply cannot lead my wife spiritually if I am not growing spiritually myself.<\/p>\n

9. Communication skills are overrated, all problems in marriage stem from sinful heart and need to be treated on a heart level first!<\/p>\n

10. When I find myself wishing my wife was more like myself I just stop for a minute and imagine how awful it would be to be married to myself!<\/p>\n

11. It’s my job to look after the physical and spiritual well-being of my wife and I can’t delegate it to anyone else.<\/p>\n

12. My success in almost every aspect can be directly attributed to my wife!<\/p>\n

13. Only God himself knows me better than my wife, so if she has some criticism for me, I better listen!<\/p>\n

14. The job of a mother of five and homeschooler of four is never ever done! She needs my help at home.<\/p>\n

15. Outside of my relationship with God my relationship with my wife will always be the primary relationship. I need to be her best friend, her partner and her lover and I must fight vigorously to keep it that way!<\/p>\n

I am still learning! I hope that God gives me many more years to learn many more lessons.<\/p>\n

So, what did I miss? Is there anything you would add to my list? Let me know in the comments below.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking back to our wedding, 15 years ago today, I’m more in awe than ever at God’s merciful hand in leading me to a beautiful and godly woman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,31],"tags":[158,130,159],"class_list":["post-968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","category-writing","tag-anniversary","tag-marriage","tag-spiritual-growth"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/DSC07225.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3izZc-fC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9454,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/lessons-from-21-years-of-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":968,"position":0},"title":"Lessons from 21 Years of Marriage","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"June 17, 2018","format":"video","excerpt":"After 21 years of marriage God has taught us a few lessons about how to love each other and what we need to do to keep our marriage healthy. We sat down to share a few of those thoughts with you. Lesson #1 Be unselfish Lesson #2 Be forgiving Lesson\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family"","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":429,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/my-third-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":968,"position":1},"title":"My Third Marriage!","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"October 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, you read that right, It's my third marriage and that doesn't included the two marriages I had in the US before moving to Ukraine. Honestly, it's a great privilege to take a small part at the beginning of a relationship that was sanctioned by God Himself! 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You can now hear the podcast on\u00a0Stitcher\u00a0or on\u00a0iTunes\u00a0head on over to your favorite one and while you're there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Gospel Today"","block_context":{"text":"The Gospel Today","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/podcast\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/VPR_7909.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/VPR_7909.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/VPR_7909.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12215,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/10-uncomfortable-questions-on-love-and-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":968,"position":4},"title":"10 Uncomfortable Questions on Love and Marriage","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"February 17, 2020","format":"audio","excerpt":"Christina and I decided to ask each other some tough questions about love and marriage. 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Questions for Christina Were there ever times in our marriage when you didn\u2019t\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Gospel Today"","block_context":{"text":"The Gospel Today","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/podcast\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Uncomfortable-Questions-on-Love-and-Marraige-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Uncomfortable-Questions-on-Love-and-Marraige-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Uncomfortable-Questions-on-Love-and-Marraige-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Uncomfortable-Questions-on-Love-and-Marraige-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Uncomfortable-Questions-on-Love-and-Marraige-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5421,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/were-back-and-our-marriage-is-on-fire\/","url_meta":{"origin":968,"position":5},"title":"We’re Back and Our Marriage Is on Fire!","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"April 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A marriage on fire could be a good thing or a bad thing. 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