I got married in the fall of 1996 with the traditional vows, a purposeful decision on my part. I wanted to say, “To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, honor, and cherish, till death do us part.”

Okay, so part of me needed to say these vows. I wanted to mean them, even though, quite honestly, I struggled with them. Now, more than twenty years later, I recognize that my struggle was with the enormity of what I was promising to do, even though I only had a vague understanding of the words at the time.

I read a wide variety of books, and occasionally, I like to pick up one on marriage. I like to finetune what I’m already doing, improve on weak areas, and generally learn more so I can love my husband even better. So, I looked forward to reading Craig Groeschel’s book, From This Day Forward: Five Commitments to Fail-Proof Your Marriage.