Taking Turns

     Turning towards our spouse is such an important aspect of a marriage.  If you turn towards your spouse, even in a disagreement, your focus is still on each other.  If you turn away, your focus is on everything else in your view, and not who is really the most important.  If we stay focused on our spouse, we will work harder to make things right because that is who is in our line of vision.

       In the movie "The Greatest Showman" (which I have now seen 5 times!) P.T. Barnum loses his focus on what is really important.  As he goes around the country promoting his singing sensation, Jenny Lind, he forgets where his heart lies.  In a very intimate setting, Jenny leans towards him she says "I've given you the world, haven't I?"  At that moment, P.T. Barnum is jolted back to realizing that "the world", "his world" is his wife Charity and his two daughters, Caroline and Helen. He leaves Jenny to rush home to his family. The lyrics to the song "From Now On", which he dedicates to his family,  says:

[Hugh Jackman:]                                                                                                  
I saw the sun begin to dim
And felt that winter wind
Blow cold
A man learns who is there for him
When the glitter fades and the walls won't hold
Cause from then, rubble
What remains
Can only be what's true
If all was lost
There's more I gained
Cause it led me back
To you

From now on
These eyes will not be blinded by the lights

From now on
What's waited till tomorrow starts tonight
Tonight
Let this promise in me start
Like an anthem in my heart
From now on.

I drank champagne with kings and queens
The politicians praised my name
But those are someone else's dreams
The pitfalls of the man I became
For years and years
I chased their cheers
The crazy speed of always needing more
But when I stop
And see you here
I remember who all this was for.

     I think turning towards our spouse helps us "remember who all this is for."  If we focus a different direction, we might end up singing a different tune!

     As I read Mary Arnell's story about fishing with her husband, I had to smile.  Right now, I am in Tuscon, Arizona with another couple and my husband...riding bikes!  My husband loves to ride bikes, but I am not physically strong enough to ride with him.  It has sometimes been a bone of contention in our relationship.  He has tried so hard to get me to love it by buying me an expensive bike (I would rather have had a pair of shoes!) and encouraging me in every aspect of the sport. This time he even decided to go with another couple hoping I would like the wife and he could ride with her husband.  Guess what???  It worked!! I adore this lady and we have laughed like old friends this whole week.  Today we drove up Mt. Lemon, a 35-mile trek and picked up our guys after their ride.  In return for me supporting him, he is always encouraging me with my school work.  It is a give and take and we have reached a compromise.  It has caused us to turn towards each other instead of letting this become a barrier to our marriage.

1 Nephi 13:37

" And blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my ^bZion at that day, for they shall have the gift and the power of the Holy Ghost; and if they endure unto the end they shall be lifted  up at the last day, and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb; and whoso shall publish peace, yea, tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the mountains shall they be."

     It was beautiful to be on Mt. Lemon today, supporting my sweetheart and turning towards our marriage.