By Uche Amunike
I walked down the aisle with my dear husband 26years ago at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Onitsha. The date was November 6, 1993. I remember that day so vividly as though it were yesterday. Truthfully, though, I can’t tell how come it’s already over two decades and a half, having reached the Silver number last year. This year, however, I just want to thank the Almighty for having brought us this far.
You know, the funny thing about marriage is that it’s not as rosy as it seems from the outside. I remember posting on some of my WhatsApp groups that we had just clocked 26years in the marital terrain. You need to have seen the myriad of congratulatory messages I got. It was truly touching. A lot of people came inbox to ask me how I was able to do it. Some asked me the secret behind it. Some others wanted to meet me in person, just to talk about their own marriage. A particular lady told me she had lost hope of ever making it work and wanted out. Some young men told me they had sought solace and peace in the arms of other women outside their homes and had no apologies for that. The list was endless!
I however found it somewhat amusing. A particular man asked me if we were still happy together after 26years of living as a couple or if we were just managing to tolerate each other. I almost laughed out loud when I read his text. Truth is, marriages have no laid out formula for making them work.
I think that all every marriage really needs is commitment, perseverance, love and trust. There’s no perfect wife or husband out there. There are perfect moments and good times, dreams and fantasies. There are little bits and pieces of every shared dream and every shared memory which keeps couples going. If they have a little space for humility, remorse and forgiveness and peace, when things go wrong, it makes the journey easy especially if the couples are each other’s best friends.
Most times, people marry for the wrong reasons and because of the very foundation their union was built on, things end up falling apart eventually.
A lot of men married their wives because of their beauty while most ladies said ‘yes’ to their partners because of their wealth. Beauty is good, but it doesn’t define a person. Beauty fades with time and money doesn’t always flow forever. Oftentimes, these foundations make the union crash because they are the very reasons why any marriage should not hold.
Marriage is a beautiful thing. It is a worthy investment. It is created by God to be a ‘forever contract’. The only people who can make it work are the couples themselves. All they need is to be committed to the union, to love, trust, understand, support each other and be ready to make sacrifices for each other. I thank God for having brought us this far. May His name forever be praised, adored, exalted and worshipped. Amen!
