15 Things {Day Twelve}

My spouse really can be my best friend (or my worst enemy).

When something great happens, who is the first person I want to tell?  When something not-so-great happens, who is the first person I want to tell?  These are a couple of the questions I have asked myself over the years as I have done my best to develop my marriage as my number one relationship.  

Lots of people can live in a mediocre marriage, or even a contented one.  But a fantastic marriage happens when a man and a woman become the absolute best of friends. When they choose to work together, play together, pray together, rest together, and grow together.

Maybe that's why, after 70+ years of marriage, my great-grandfather had the nursing home staff push the twin beds together in the room of he and my great-grandmother. They wanted to be able to hold hands as they fell asleep. They had grown toward one another in a bond that made them the best of lovers and the best of friends. 

Last week, a terrible tragedy happened in our town.  A man was disgruntled with his estranged wife, and he entered the home in the middle of the night and shot his wife, his 20-year-old daughter, and eventually himself.  His 17-year-old son hid and avoided being wounded or killed in this horrific case of domestic violence.

Just yesterday, we found out that this couple was the one who had lived across the street from my parents not much more than a year ago.  When I gave the news to Kaitlynn, she gasped, "I just saw them at Halloween and they were in love!" 

Who knows the path that their marriage had taken since the days we would see them working in the yard, or their son playing basketball in the driveway.  Apparently, they had gone from being the best of friends to being the worst of enemies. 

It's beyond comprehension that marriage could have such a devastating ending, but somewhere along the way love was lost. 

My best friend isn't a hobby.  It isn't an organization.  It isn't a possession.  It isn't one of my precious children,  or even my precious parents.  My best friend is the man I fall asleep beside every night, and plan to grow old with one day - whenever we start to age...lol.  :-)