“Two are better than one,
Because they have a good reward for their labor.” (Ecc 4:9)

#5. Productivity Boost

When you set out to do something, it is easy to get discouraged. When you’re feeling lazy, it’s easy to procrastinate. When you’re feeling reluctance, it’s easy to give up at the first encounter of difficulty.

However, one of the blessing of marriage is that you no longer work alone, but you automatically do things together and help one another. That already in itself reduces discouragement, laziness, or reluctance in doing good things. It’s always a mindset boost when can work with a partner versus working alone. But even if those sentiments do creep in, your spouse’s presence and enthusiasm can help you out of the funk.

Yesterday we started cleaning up the E1 classroom to paint it. Then we’ll reorganize everything and throw out any junk. This would have been an daunting and overbearing task for one person. I know I personally wouldn’t want to tackle this alone. In fact, I think one of my many weaknesses is lack of perserverance and diligence. But thank and praise God, “two are better than one.” We were able to get so much done (and plan to get a lot more done this week).

The prospect of being able accomplish so much more together is a great blessing to have for the rest of our lives. This is the blessing of marriage.

[Read more →]

#3. Accountability

When you get married, someone lives with you basically all the time. All your habits and routines are in plain view. Though possible, it is usually hard to hide things or be secretive of how you spend your time. All this points to the blessing of accountability. Together you can mold each other to be more pleasing to God. Just last week, I was watching an unedifying video on youtube.  Joyce awakened my conscience on what I’d been polluting my eyes and heart with. A proud man would harden his heart and find this constantly annoying. But a humble man would graciously receive the gift that is his wife–the gift that is marriage. Hope I stay humble.

#4. Laughter

There a lot of times that you just laugh at each other! One time Joyce and I were talking and during the conversation she was making a noise pretending to sleep/snore. It was so cute and unexpected that I was soon laughing myself in stitches. It was so funny! I’ve also already shared my sleep-talking story…. :P

[Read more →]

Joyce and I have been married 44 days now. After the wedding, honeymoon, and move, we’ve been settling into normal married life. I think it’ll be fun to spend the next dozen posts on the blessings I’ve received in marriage. Let’s start with two:

#1. Yummy food
Joyce has been blossoming into quite the cook. She usually goes on allrecipies.com and tries out all the highly rated recipes of interest.

#2. Serving God
Part of why it’s so important to marry in the Lord, is so that you can serve God together. Imagine getting married and a month later, asking your non-believing husband/wife if you can leave home for a week to help out as a SSC counselor and serve the RE students. That conversation may not go so well. On the other hand, think about the mutual understanding that takes place when I have to stay late Saturday for a church council meeting or when Joyce is away for a week at SSC and two weeks at NYTS. This is a great blessing of marriage. It helps us both live a life of meaning–without persecution or complaint–to serve our true and living God.

[Read more →]

Joyce had her first encounter with me sleep-talking last night. This is how the conversation went.

Joyce walking into the bedroom. I’m already sleeping. Apparently, I turn over to her, still asleep and say:

S: “Oh no!”
J: thinking I’m awake, “What Sam?”
S: “There’s icing inside the cockpit!”
J: “What?”
S: “There’s icing inside the cockpit!”
J: “What?”
S: “There’s icing inside the cockpit!”
J: realizing I am asleep. “Oh, are we in a plane?”
S: “Yeah”
J: “Oh where are we going?”
S: “…I don’t know…”
J: “So, what are you going to do about it?”
S: “About what?”
J: “The icing.”
S: “Oh,” pause for thought, “I’ll lick it.” then I turned over to face the other side.

[Read more →]