My Life as a Married Person

 I have grown up in church my whole life. I was saved young. I love the church with all my heart. If you are a Christian, you should be in church. As someone who couldn't attend church for almost a year, I understand that it's hard to go back.  I do understand that the church fails sometimes. I am reminded constantly in recent years that they fail quite more frequently then we would like them to. Here are some examples of where I feel the church has often failed me.  1. Nobody reaches out if you don't show up. When I was out of church for over a year, only two people contacted me. One also has a chronic illness and the other had good intentions. I was alone a lot and didn't see a lot of people. I struggled with depression from it for over a year along with severe anxiety attacks. 2. If you are in need and not yet a member, you are often excluded. I understand that certain privileges come with church membership. I am a pastor's kid, I understand too well. But I learn...

My husband and I both knew we would eventually hurt each others feelings. Its bound to happen when living with the same person every day. We knew we would eventually have arguments. However, that didn't stop it from hurting both of us when it happened. I was feeling sick and my husband wanted to be silly with me. I became upset and snapped at him when he started to pick on me about being sick. He wasn't being mean spirited, he only wanted to make me feel better.  He became sad and withdrawn, then I cried. I hadn't meant to hurt his feelings and he hadn't meant to hurt mine. He was more shocked when I started to cry than when I snapped. I don't cry very often in front of him. I was taught that tears are a way women manipulate men, so I try not to cry too often in front of them. I don't want to seem manipulative.  There were times when he accidentally hurt me, like yesterday, and he wanted forgiveness. In my eyes, there was nothing to forgive. He hadn't sinned...