My firstborn, a son, got married last Saturday! Now I can say I have three married children, my three oldest: two sons and a daughter. We traveled to Texas to witness the wedding. It all seems so surreal. I have prayed for this day for years and it finally happened! So I definitely have weddings, marriage and romance on my brain. I blogged about weddings last week here and I’m blogging about marriage again today. (If any of you read that blog post I just referenced, and are wondering what the send-off to the honeymoon involved for my son’s wedding, here is the answer: ribbon and paper streamers.)

It took us two days to drive to TX, then we spent two days there visiting (including the Alamo) and attending the wedding. After the big day, we drove back home over two days, after attending church services on Sunday morning. What a whirlwind trip! My husband showed me some little courtesies on the trip that I thoroughly enjoyed as a touch of romance. Here are some of them: he put my suitcase on the only suitcase rack in the motel room instead of his, he got some earphones situated on my head so I could hear a video on my phone while I was driving, he read aloud trivia questions for me to answer while I drove, and when we pulled up to our motel room to stay on the last night of the trip, it was raining cats and dogs. He let me out under the canopy connected to the motel entrance, so I didn’t have to get wet while he drove the car over by the room and walked through the rain. I looked for ways to show him courtesies too like filling up his water bottle at the gas station when I filled up mine. It’s been 31 years of marriage for us, with a ton of mistakes. Neither of us is perfect. I hope we have been good examples to each of our children of working to make marriage work, including communication, showing affection and appreciation, going on dates, and apologizing and forgiving. My firstborn has been out of the nest for years but hopefully those memories are in his brain as well. It was wonderful to see my son so happy with his new bride. I pray that he will continue to show her romance and courtesies for all their married life together.

I love that Rhonda and Farrell Pickeing address marriage in this video below about some of the recent scriptures covered in the Come Follow Christ study guide of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They also talk about prayer and the parable of the laborers in the vineyard.

Want to read more about marriage?

-go here for what President Dallin H. Oaks, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, and his wife, Sister Kristen Oaks, recently said about marriage

-go here for my top 12 tips for staying married, which I wrote after I had been married 30 years

-go here for instructions for a DIY Marriage Retreat