Choose Your Next Words Carefully

When my husband and I started dating in January of our senior year of college, we were pretty straightforward with each other. We agreed that as soon as one of us knew we weren’t going to get married, we would stop dating. Kevin also told me that he wouldn’t say, “I love you,” unless he felt pretty sure that he wanted to marry me. And on an evening in April that year, at his parents’ house, he looked at me and said those three words. 

I froze. I don’t know why I froze, but I did. I absolutely loved him, too, and I wasn’t afraid to say it, but I think he just surprised me with it. So I stood there feeling completely in love yet unable to say so. And as the awkward silence extended, I began to feel like it was worse to take so long to say it back than not to say it at all. I’m not sure what Kevin thought about that theory, but I know he was glad the next day when I finally said, “I love you, too.”  

Words are powerful, aren’t they? They help us express what we are thinking and feeling. They can heal or hurt. They can make us laugh, cry, understand, delight, open up, or get mad. Words stay with us. They affect our relationships. And this is why we must be both careful and intentional with our words in marriage… [Click here to read the full article on Family Christian.]