Today is not our wedding anniversary, or the anniversary of when we started dating or got engaged. It’s nothing special, just a Tuesday. But these regular, normal days are what life is made up of. Marriage in the everyday is where both the hardships are worked through, and the magic of living life with someone you love is found. As I’ve been learning to cultivate a better sense of gratefulness for everything in life, these days have become more and more beautiful to me. The ones where we sit on the couch and watch favorite TV shows. The ones where we cook together or hang out with friends. The days of stressing about yard work and house projects that we don’t know how to do. Even the ones when we’re having a disagreement or annoying each other. Because there’s such a humbling beauty in knowing that someone loves me so much he’ll stick around through hard conversations and annoying habits. That he’ll continue to sacrifice for me and serve me, even when I let him down. That he’ll laugh with me (and sometimes at me) when I’m taking things a little too seriously. He’ll be honest with me, even when it hurts, because he refuses to build a relationship on being fake. He’ll hug me and buy me flowers, even though he thinks they’re silly. He’ll do dishes, he’ll get groceries, he’ll clean out the litter box. Life is full of unglamorous, unromantic moments….but when you smash them all together in one big combination of everyday life, one big opportunity to serve the one you love instead of yourself, so much radiance can be found in the seemingly mundane.

Timothy Keller says of marriage, “Seek to serve one another rather than to be happy, and you will find a new and deeper happiness.”

I can’t say that I’m even close to the perfect selfless servant, but I can say that the less I focus on me, the happier and more grateful I am for this everyday life full of blessings beyond measure, and for a husband who loves and serves and lives that out.