Our wedding anniversary was last Monday. Two years ago, the love
of my life and I stood facing each other in the splendor of our friends'
garden, surrounded by loved ones in body and spirit as we exchanged vows and rings and
tears of joy. Each of us is to the other an answered prayer, a reminder of how much God loves us. We are imperfect and we both behave from time to time in a manner unbecoming. But His love always prevails over our foolishness and we are once again, laughing and loving and learning to be more like Him who saved us. I love my man more than I can say. I am still astonished at my great fortune to be his wife. I look forward to all of eternity with him.
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:21-33
I think many people can't get past those first two sentences without cringing. But mutual submission is the greatest blessing you can give your marriage. My husband and I were very clear in our vows to each other that we were not just making a commitment to each other but we were making a commitment to God for each other. Our pastor expressed this very effectively to us before we got married. He's done alot of marital counseling over the years and says every marital problem he has ever encountered comes down to the man not feeling respected and the woman not feeling loved. Think about someone you know who is having trouble in their marriage. Isn't it true? And when we women don't feel loved enough, how do we retaliate? By disrespecting our husbands! And their responses keep the vicious cycle in motion, creating an even deeper chasm. As our pastor says, it only takes one person to break the cycle. Wives, submit to and respect your husbands. Husbands, love your wives as your own bodies. I pray for all of you reading this that you find joy and healing where necessary in your marriages.
A wife of noble character is her husband's crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones. Proverbs 12:4
Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.
Proverbs 21:9
The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.
1 Corinthians 7:3
I don't know where this tradition started. It could have been inspired by an acting exercise where you choose an animal for your character and walk and speak your character's lines like that animal. I've been a lynx, a peacock, cottontail bunny, mouse, otter, doberman, horse, deer, golden retriever and a vulcher, among others. 
