Marriage Misnomers: Your Spouse is Your Best Friend.

I am starting a new blog series this Monday on marriage misnomers. In addition to my monthly real life marriage series, I want to share about some commonly made statements that I haven't found to be true. I hope this series will be helpful to both married and unmarried readers.

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I've seen many people ooh and aah about marrying their "best friend." I wasn't one of them. When I got married, I had best friends and did not want to replace them.  My husband was my friend, but not my best friend. We'd spent time together, but we weren't joined at the hip, constantly together, or even telepathic like some of my best friends. We'd just spent enough time together to know we didn't want to be apart. I married my husband because I loved him, well, like a lover. 

After a year and counting of marriage, I still love my husband. I am still attracted to him physically, spiritually, emotionally, and otherwise. Over time, though, our initial attraction has grown into something more. The warm fuzzies and giddiness have grown into a steady sense of commitment and family. We're becoming better friends, and maybe best friends. Dare I say that maybe marriage is a best friend making process?

Marriage results in lots of time spent together. Marriage is an accumulation of many shared experiences. Marriage is living and learning...a lot. Marriage is having fun and laughing together. Marriage is experiencing hardship and crying together. If it takes 200 hours to make a best friend and you haven't spent that much time together before marriage, marriage provides the fertile ground of time for making a forever best friend.

Some people say they marry their best friend. I say that your spouse becomes your best friend. Marriage is a best friend making process. While I still have best friends, my husband is slowly eclipsing them all, and that's the way it should be...for better or for worse.