Marriage Differences part 3

In the Navy, there really is no need to wish for change. It is always there around the corner. Three months at sea; three months home. Then gone again. When my husband was at sea, I did my best to live frugally and tuck away savings. When he was home, he would buy all the things he dreamed if while at sea and work out payment plans for the stuff purchased. He reasoned he had been deprived of life for months and had to make up for it while at home. I could manage the payments while he went back to sea. 

The breaks kept the marriage fresh. We were lonely and longing for each other when he returned, when the reality of the differences in philosophy reared their heads, it was time to return to sea. I continued to hold out hope that I could reason with him so that he too could see that house if cards being built ready to topple on the slightest change. 

I returned to college and resurrected my church attendance. I had to confront my own failures as a Christian. I had sunk far from my first love when I first vowed to serve The Lord. My issues in marriage had come down to my way and his way. Neither of us planned to budge. I started listening to a Christian radio station where I heard Larry Burkett for the first time. He wrote a number of books on money management and I ate them up like candy. He helped me to see and appreciate the differences between men and women and how the differences were to fulfill us, not to frustrate us. 

I fed on Christian self help books that I also shared with my husband. He seemed to find enjoyment from them as well. I started attending church and Bible study to help me keep my focus on God's hand in my life and not to create solutions of my own doing. We found a bit of peace for the journey and I was grateful.