marriage advice

So Ryan & I went out to dinner last night with a couple from church. They are a couple years older than us and just got married a year go. We had a great time fellowshipping with them, and they gave us some good marriage advice, some of which I had never thought about. Like...Ryan & I are going to pre-marital counseling in May, which is awesome, but what about post-marital counseling? I had never heard of this concept! But it sounds like a good idea, a good way to work through things after you're actually married and walking out the things you've learned & talked about before marriage. The word "counseling" has a stigma to it these days, like you only need it if things are going wrong. But we should really approach it as "preventative maintenance", to steal David's analogy. And this concept of a Deuteronomy...in Deuteronomy 24:5, the men who had just been married were ordered to spend a year at home with their wives instead of going to war. So making sure that we take extra time to focus on the first year of marriage and not take on anything extra...life is busy enough as it is and we should really enjoy that first year! And every yr...but you get the idea.

I'm sure there are many wise couples out there that want to share their advice :) Feel free to leave us some in the comments, or make sure you find us in August!