Originally Posted by Leota
My advice is to keep Christ as the central focus of your marriage and home. Lean on him during the times when you are struggling.
Battle of Roses .... remember WHY you loved your spouse in the first place
AMEN to this too, I lost my way for a long time, then I found it again, and ever since things have gone so much better, and I know this to be true. I was raised with God in my life, and as I grew older and I thought smarter, I strayed further and further away, I'm no goodie goodie, because no one is without sin either way, but I have come full circle, now at age 63 I'm a lot happier and a lot more blessed then I ever was before. Marriage number 3 I thought what on earth am I doing? There has been some rough patches, a divorce, a death, and now number 3, but it's coming along, now with year 8 approaching. We have had the usual his kids, my kids dilemma, and the arguments over kids' behavior, especially GROWN should know a ton better arguments, and then we have to stop and say, HEY we did the best we knew how at the time, and STOP, it's their turn to be responsible and to take the lessons we taught them, and neither of us have to put up with each other's kids abusive behavior. That settled it right there. I'm grateful for that, because we made a deal, that WE are not US as in all our kids and us, we are just plain US, a team of two now. They are on their own. We like this better, and WE are now a smoother team. I am not at all sure this made any sense....but I hope that people stand firm and united whether it's their kids together or a combined blended family, all these kids need to see that you are TOGETHER and cannot be swayed to adopt the opinions of ANY of the kids. For awhile we had a real combat thing going, where one of the kids was doing her very best to put a wedge between us, it worked for awhile too, then it hit both of us, HOLD IT, this kid is NOT our keeper. Love does NOT mean accepting one's child's abuse or intrusiveness, otherwise why be married at all? Keep your faith about you, it will always see you through, and talk about problems if your kids are still at home, behind A CLOSED DOOR, not in front of the kids, they USE it later as ammunition I swear!! This comes from years and years in the combat zone of raising his, mine, ours etc.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Connie