This post is going to be very transparent and real. For those of you who don’t know, I am a Latter-day Saint. I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and I have grown up in the church my whole life. I believe in God and I believe that He sent His son Jesus Christ to atone for our sins so that we can live with Him and our families again forever. I haven’t wanted to share this mostly because I don’t want to offend anyone. But the older I get and the busier I am with my business, I realize that my belief in God and Jesus Christ are the whole reason I do what I do. I’m a wedding photographer because of the love I feel from my Savior. The selfless, never-ending love that He has showed me is what I hope to show others. I want my couples to feel loved, not by me, but by their Savior. By someone who knows them better than they know themselves. And one of the best ways to feel that love is through our spouse and through striving to love our spouse as He does.
Now, I am not perfect by ANY means. And I’ve struggled with this, especially recently. When Geoffrey and I first got married, we were sealed in the Idaho Falls temple for time and all eternity. We made promises to each other and to God and we worked hard to keep those promises. And as time goes on, I’ve gotten relaxed. Nothing major has happened, but I’ve caught myself seeing the negative in Geoffrey instead of loving him for who he really is, a son of God. And realizing that was really hard for me. The past couple months have been rough and I’ve struggled to be happy and to focus on what’s most important. So, I’ve realized that I need to change. I need to do everything I can to keep Christ in our relationship because He is the one who can strengthen it.
~ Pray ~ This sounds so simple. But there was a chunk of time that I wasn’t saying my morning prayers. I wasn’t waking up and thanking God for what I have and asking Him to help me. I was just starting my day. And praying for help and guidance makes a HUGE difference in how we treat others. We are given strength beyond our own to love and serve instead of judge and belittle.
~ Love him as Christ does ~ No one is perfect and of course we are going to see flaws in others, but striving to love our spouse as Christ does will help us overcome those flaws. It will only help us be stronger and strengthen our relationship more. Christ sees our strengths and our potential and I think there are many times in our lives when we fail to see someone’s potential. It’s not about who they are now, it’s about who they have the capacity to become.
~ See the positive and write it down ~ This is a MAJOR help for me! I tend to be a realist…which often translates into negativity. So, finding positive qualities or even just things that make me smile make a huge difference. Like last week, I was gone for a night at girls camp and Geoffrey watched Adalynn. He came to pick me up and when I got home there was a lot to do. I still had to put Adalynn to bed and do some laundry. I was super tired and I remember asking him before I left if he could do the dishes because I didn’t have time to do them before I left. Well, when I got home there were still a few dishes in the sink, but he had done most of them. Now, I could focus on the 5 dishes he didn’t wash, or I could focus on the majority that he did wash and just thank him. Something else I like to do is write these things down. We have a little board in our room that I’ve written, ‘I love you because…’ on and after I notice positive things, I try to write them down on that board. And it’s not just for Geoffrey. It’s for me, to remind me every time I see it that he does do things for us and does have positive qualities and that those are most important.
~ Don’t compare ~ This is the WORST thing you can do in a relationship. Every relationship is different and every person is different. Just because you see that someone else’s relationship seems perfect doesn’t mean that it is. And even if it is perfect, you need to focus on your relationship not theirs. If you keep focusing on other peoples relationships and never work on your own, it’s probably not going to get any better.
~ Keep your covenants ~ This one is so important. Like I said earlier, Geoff and I made promises with each other and with God when we were sealed in the temple. And if I do everything I can to keep those covenants and promises and to keep my relationship with my Savior strong, I will be blessed in my marriage. I will be given strength and patience and the ability to see Geoffrey as Christ does.
Like I said, the last couple months have been hard and I am not perfect in this area. But I have found that doing these things really helps me to love Geoffrey more and to be even happier with our life together. And I know that we’ll be blessed if we both try to make our marriage a priority.
📷 ~ Michelle & Logan