Before I got married, I asked a lot of people for advice - what they had learned through marriage, what worked, and what didn't. A lot of advice was the same, so in some ways it all ran together. But I do remember what one couple told me. They said, "You're going to screw up. At so many points in marriage, you're going to make a mistake. It's a lot less painful to just go ahead and tell your spouse you made a mistake rather than wait for them to find out."

I didn't exactly know what they meant at the time, but today I know exactly what they're talking about. Because I do mess up, a lot. I make mistakes. I lose my temper. I am moody. I can be hard to live with sometimes. And when I do something that I know will upset Nathan or negatively affect our relationship, I have indeed learned that it is so much easier to just admit it and apologize rather than trying to hide it.

Case in point: a couple weeks ago, I had to rush out to be at church...