I’m a new wife. Very new.

So why am I writing about wife-hood, when there are so many more qualified women to share? Women who have stood by their husbands through storms and walked with their husbands through hell, women who have supported their men and made them great, women who have devoted their lives to service.

While here I am, still doting over my husbands smallest quirks, adoring every aspect of the way he cherishes me, eager to do the most menial tasks if it makes him happy . . . untempered, unweathered, inexperienced.

Just, in love.

Maybe because I want to discover, over time, if the “honeymoon stage” truly leaves us, or if we choose to leave the “honeymoon stage.”

What if I acted like I was newly married my entire marriage? What if I always focused on my husband’s strengths and overlooked his weaknesses? What if I always forgave the passing moments of hurt because he shows so much love? What if I always sought to serve him? What if I always built him up in public and private, and stay quick to apologize, because the future is so much bigger than pride?

Would I stay in the “honeymoon stage” if  I respected him forever, realizing he’s human, but honoring him because he is my human? What if I continued to make it a priority to look good for him . . . even on days when I would rather straight-up choose the bum-life?

What if, 40 years from now, I still heard him out, and listened to his opinion? What if I still allowed him to make the final decision and reverence his position as head of our home?

What if I continued to watch my words, because I care about his feelings. What would life be if I sought to build him up and remind him I love him.

What if I still told him he was “hott?”

What if his opinion always mattered more than anyone else’s in the world?

Would the “honeymoon stage” still leave, and turn into the dry, boring, painful, marriage many complain about, if I continued to apply the same amount of intentional effort into my marriage? Or would the fresh, innocent, “honeymoon stage” blossom into the rich, deep, surging “honeymoon stage” that is still ardent and joyfully-sacrificial, but stronger for the tests and trials?

Maybe the “honeymoon stage” just up and leaves us one day, but I have a hunch it’s the little decisions every day that force us to leave Eden. 

Let’s protect the passion,