Saturday, February 28, 2009

Fireproofing

Omar and I have been taking a marriage course at church. We are on week 4 and it is such an interesting experience. See, marriage is like making a pizza. Except, in that context, we have never seen anyone successfully make a pizza. We were raised around pizzas that had way too many anchovies and were burnt and then fell splat on the floor. So, weve carefully navigated through this marriage thing for the last year and half, feeling much like Columbus, having no idea what we are doing, and we're finally discovering America. Except, unlike Columbus, we've realized that somebody has already discovered America, so rather than trying to do everything our own way and screwing up the entire new world, we are following their lead, surrounding ourselves with people who have already lived well in this place. Can you tell i've been teaching world history? Anyway, rather than commiting mass genocide, we are taking the smart road and have realized that maybe we arent the first people in the world that have ever tried to be married. The day we realized that was a turning point in our relationship, so we signed up for a marriage course.

If you've ever seen the movie Fireproof, you know what I mean when I say that we are fireproofing our marriage. Even though it is heaven on earth right now, someday we will face challenges and we are learning now how to overcome them. Together.

In the last few weeks, we've focused on how we talk to eachother. For instance, a few weeks ago I cleaned the bathroom. It was an epic event, and if we knew where to find our camera I would have posted pictures. I'm smack in the middle of The Semester From Hell, and anything I do beyond homework deserves to be scrapbooked. The day I cleaned the bathroom I did it in ten minutes, between classes. A few days later, Omar and I were in the kitchen and our conversation went a little something like this:

Omar: You really need to learn how to clean toilets.
Me: fsdfjasiouf832334#%$@#%@!!!

Now, were learning how to communicate more lovingly, so the next time he confronted me with an issue about housework, it was done in a way that made me swoon.
I have been addicted to this delicious "food" for the last week or so:
It is a chocolatey, delicious, FAST, breakfast and it resulted in 4 glasses with chocolate bottoms side by side on the clean, bathroom counter next to my make-up bag. Omar saw this, and what had the potential to be World War IV in our house, became this:

(This is a beautiful cup collection. It would look better in the kitchen! I Love You!)

and a giggly wife who was more than happy to do this:
“I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.” -Rita Rudner

3 comments:

Chelsea said...

At Hope we had to do a marriage counseling class that was something like 9-12 weeks long before they would agree to marry us....I had a friend of mine and her boyfriend taking the class with us at the time, and they were thinking about marriage. They found out how not-compatible they were after the lengthy course, SO i know how beneficial those kinds of classes are to couples. I think we'll continue to take classes to refine our marriage even 5-10 years down the line. I'm glad you and Omar are getting a lot out of it. Being married is fun...it has ups and downs. It's a lot like being pregnant, it can suck sometimes because along with it comes challenges that are hard hurdles to get over. Anyways- I'm rambling! I think it's great that the church offers those tools to people.

Unknown said...

Haha I love that last quote - so true but poignant! X.

I do what I want! said...

I loved the movie Fireproof!
You sound like you have such an amazing marriage based around God. What a good thing to have! I drink protein shakes every morning too but I'm addicted to the brand muscle milk chocolate ones! I also love the note he left you about putting your glasses in the kitchen! priceless!