If you are unfamiliar with our story, we were married when I was 19 and my hubby was 21. Fast forward 3 years, and we are now expecting our first bundle of joy {actually two bundles of joy} in December 2012, at the ripe old ages of 22 and 24.

Our experience marrying young

When we first got engaged (and even after we were married) we had many rude comments from those who didn’t know us very well about being married young. Even today, my husband is 24 and I am 22, we still get very weird reactions to the fact that we are married and expecting our first baby (babies!).

But my husband and I wouldn’t have it any other way! We are more madly in love today than we were on the day we got married. We got to enjoy college together and moving on to careers. We have learned to grow together when it comes to money and are blessed to have grown up together with our finances.

We are thankful that God has taught us how to handle money together, and he has also allowed us to develop habits together. An article appeared in The Huffington Post suggesting basically that getting married before 25 should be illegal.

In this article, the author states that she didn’t know who she was at 19, and that tore her and her husband apart because as they got older they grew away from each other. I find this so sad and realize that a lot of the problems they faced came from not having Christ as the center of their marriage.

But something I am so thankful for is that my husband and I have developed habits and things we enjoy together over the years.

Horseback Riding in 2009

How marrying young made habit-forming easier

When we got engaged, we had lived at home our whole lives. We had just moved on to our college campus for a year (I was in a dorm, he was in an apartment) and we never knew what it meant to live on our own. Even when he moved into that apartment on campus for a year, I went shopping with him and helped him get dishes and towels. We planned meals together and our free time was always spent together studying and occasionally relaxing.

I have seen a lot of older couples struggle to mesh their lives together as a married couple, when they had lived on their own for years beforehand. They have habits that were established on their own. They didn’t have to account to anyone else for their time. They had their own house how they wanted and things never moved from where they wanted them.

But then suddenly after 10 years of freedom they are forced to live with someone totally different. Someone who leaves the toilet seat up, doesn’t pick up dishes, leaves wet towels on the ground and uses time very differently than they do. It can be a really hard adjustment.

Getting married at any age takes a certain amount of adjustment. Suddenly you are not alone anymore. You have another half and you should put their needs above your own.

But what I love and appreciate is that God placed my husband and I together at a young age. We largely didn’t have these problems. Yes, my hubby has to have his toothpaste tube a certain way but I don’t mind because we can do these little things for each other.

We were able to grow up together and discover what it means to have free time again. We got to learn our passions together. We were able to discover that we both love to take bike rides and make it a priority to do so together.

By getting married young, we were able to develop habits and patterns together, and it has been an incredible blessing from God.

I understand that for many people, God calls them into marriage later in life. I think this is great and God’s perfect timing. I also think that no matter the age you get married, God can grant each couple the grace and gift of growing wonderful habits together. I just know that for us, as a young couple, the Lord has blessed us in this area. I simply wish to defend the idea of young marriage and that good things can come from it 🙂

But I want to hear YOUR stories. No matter your age when you got married, was it difficult or easy to meld your time and habits together?