Life is what happens to most marriages. You know things like jobs, kids, kid’s activities, extended family, television, hobbies and other things. Those things take up so much time there is little time left to work on marriage. And regardless of what we thought in the beginning, marriage does take work. While it certainly does take work it should not be a chore. If marriage is important to us and a happy lasting marriage a priority, the work should be a labor of love not a dreaded task.

In the beginning...

My journey started just six weeks shy of my 17th birthday. On October 22, 1988, Chad and I got married. Chad and I were young and in love. We were teenagers. I look back and I know we loved each other but I just can’t even imagine that we really knew what we were getting into. Of course love was easy back then. When you are young you can live on love, right? In the beginning you don’t really have to choose to love, it comes naturally.
Do you remember being young and in love? That was when love was blind…and deaf…and just perfect. Ah yes, those were the days (sigh). Do you remember talking on the phone for hours and still having plenty to talk about? Do you remember counting the hours until you could see each other again? Do you remember feeling all tingly inside when you held hands or kissed? Do you remember wanting to make the other person happy? So what happened? Where did those feelings go? Why did they change? Did we grow up? Did we grow apart?

Why did I name my blog second place marriage? I guess you could say it is my mantra these days. After 21 years of trial and error I think I have finally learned the order of life and marriage that makes things click. If you want a first rate marriage, it has to be second place. Why second place you ask? God has to have first place before any other part of your life can work properly. Oh life and marriage can work without God in first place but work is all it does. When God is in first place, life and marriage thrive.
Chad and I have been through many trials in 21 years. If you stay tuned you will learn all about them. It was not until we both decided to put God first and our spouse second that we started to enjoy the institution we are in. It took much worse, poorer, and sickness to bring us to the point of surrender. It is our goal in life now to help others learn to love, honor, and cherish each other more. When we asked him to, God came in and changed our hearts and our marriage. He did it for us and he can do it for you!

Welcome to our blog! We are Chad and Melanie. We have been happily and not so happily married for 21 years and a few months. We have 3 kids. Colbey is our 20 year old son. Chanie is our almost teen daughter. Saylor is very much the 8 year old baby of the family. I better not forget to mention the “fur-babies”. We have two Great Danes and a Rat Terrier. Oh yes, we also have two cats. We both work full time and all the time. Chad works in the pest control business and is a part time mechanic. Chad is also a minister of music. We have been in music and youth ministry for over 18 years. I work in the insurance segment of healthcare. We enjoy ministering to others, Christian music, NHRA drag racing, and FOOTBALL.