Marriage Is More Than Just Work

by Aja Jackson

In the months leading up to our wedding, my husband and I received a lot of advice about marriage from married folks. The advice that they gave varied a little, but there was one thing that I heard over and over: marriage takes work. While knowing that there was work involved was helpful, only hearing about the work sometimes felt a little disheartening. I started to wonder, after all of that work, was there anything fun about marriage?

I know that I have only been married for two years, but I’m still waiting on the constant drudgery that I heard so much about prior to our nuptials. When I think about the other things that I have to do on a daily basis, marriage, quite honestly, is probably the easiest. No, marriage is not all roses and romance all the time, but so far it’s easy a whole lot more than it is hard. It does take work, there’s no doubt about that, but most of the time even the work doesn’t feel so bad especially in comparison to the work involved in doing things like cleaning the house or getting the kids to bed or actually going to work every day.

In order to keep our marriages happy, it is important to be aware of the potential issues, but it’s also important to focus on the positive. In honor of this I decided to make a list of the top five reasons why I love being married:

1.       I always have a date: Being married I never have to worry about being bored and alone on a Saturday night. Even if it’s just ordering subs and watching a movie, I always have something to do and somebody to do it with.

2.       I can eat good food without cooking it: I am fortunate to have a husband who loves to cook and is good at it. After a long day, nothing feels better than being able to eat a home cooked meal without putting in any effort. Don’t have a cook for a spouse? Maybe your spouse is the best mechanic, or housekeeper, or poopy-diaper changer. The point is that having another “half” means that you can get everything done while only doing half of the work.

3.       I always have a shoulder to cry on: And a hand to hold, and arms to hug me when I need it, and someone taller than me that can get something down off of a shelf that’s out of reach. Being married means that I always have someone there for me, even if it’s just to tell me that everything is going to be alright when there’s nothing else to say.

4.       Sex is Better: Yes, I know this is contrary to everything that you’ve ever heard. Being married is supposed to take away all of the mystery, leaving your sex life, well, dull. But..(clearing my throat so that I can talk about this openly) those mysteries like “Is he going to call me?” “Will he respect me in the morning?” “Is this going anywhere?” “Does he have a disease?” or “Is he just plain old crazy?” don’t really exist in a marriage leaving room to let go of your inhibitions. Being a wife means that you can do or say whatever you want in the bedroom, and not worry about whether he’s going to tell his boys.

And Finally,

5.       Every night I get to have a sleep over with my very best friend: And really, what could be more fun than that.