Read Beyond Ordinary: When a Good Marriage Just Isn't Good Enough for Free Online

Justin’s delight, we quickly approached a yacht that was creating some intense waves. He yelled over his shoulder, “Hold on!” I wanted to ask what for, but he immediately put the Jet Ski in full throttle and aimed to hit the wave dead on.
    As I flew twenty feet over Justin, I heard the people on the yacht shouting, “Oh my . . .” I landed in full belly-flop position, and as I came up out of the water, the blisters on my face popped, skin was hanging everywhere, and I looked like a battered wife, not a newlywed on her honeymoon.
    There is no question that our wedding and honeymoon were not as spectacular as either of us had imagined. But we were young and in love, and what brought us together was not only a love forGod and each other, but a shared vision to change the world for Christ. In the grand scheme, there was still so much life to live, and we were ready to start living it together.
    JUSTIN:
    When we returned from our honeymoon, I still had one year of college to complete, and Trisha was starting her sophomore year. She had taken a year off of school to save for our wedding. Trisha and I first moved into a cheap and roach-infested apartment, but we decided this was too much to bear despite its $150 price tag, so we moved into a tiny house. It was actually an old garage that had been converted into a house. It wasn’t that attractive, it wasn’t that nice, but the rent was $225 per month, which fit well into two college students’ budget. And there were no roaches.
    Shortly after the fall semester started, we found out that Trisha didn’t have the flu as we’d thought. She was pregnant. The honeymoon was definitely over. We were four months into married life, learning to live together and to balance school, work, basketball, and college life. Our differences began to rise to the surface. Those little things that were so cute when we were dating all of a sudden weren’t so cute: they caused conflict. I was a night owl; Trish was a morning person. I was a hit-the-snooze-button-multiple-times person; Trish was a get-out-of-bed-two-minutes-before-the-alarm-goes-off person. I spread things out on the desk so I could find them; Trish stacked things up so they looked organized.
    One of the biggest fights our first year of marriage came the day we celebrated our first Christmas as a married couple. We were going to see our families for Christmas break, so we made plans to meet at home after class and open gifts before we left. Trisha had to be at work that day before I had class, so she got up first, got all of the gifts she had purchased for me out of the closet, and laid them beautifully under the tree. I woke up and saw the gifts under the tree, taking that as a cue to get ready for our gift exchange.
    I went to the closet, grabbed the gifts I had purchased for Trisha, and put them in a pile on the couch. I made a nice little sign that said “Trisha’s Gifts” and placed it on top of her pile. I grabbed the gifts that she had purchased from under the tree, placed them in a pile on the recliner, and made a sign that said “Justin’s Gifts” for my pile. I felt a sense of pride in the accomplishment that I had organized our Christmas presents and they were now ready to be opened. I got ready for my last day of class and went to campus.
    Trisha came home from work to find the presents she had meticulously placed under the tree stacked up in a pile on the recliner. She had no idea what happened. This was before cell phones and text messaging, so there was no convenient way to communicate to me, “What in the heck were you thinking, moving my beautifully placed gifts?” So she took both perfectly stacked piles of presents and repositioned them under the tree. She then left for campus to take her last exam.
    You can see where this is going. I came home from class, saw the gifts back under the tree, and was totally confused.
    Trisha came home from class, and I said, “Why are all the gifts under the tree? I