MY wife and I are at a couples’ retreat celebrating our 12th wedding anniversary. I would like to share with you the tools that made our marriage strong and continues to make it stronger.

First, let me begin my saying that a good marriage begins with the person whom you choose to marry. In my case, I was looking for a woman who possesses the three most important things that I couldn’t live without.

For me, these three qualities or needs I had to have in order to have a successful marriage and a happy life. As long as my wife had these qualities, I didn’t care about the other qualities that were lacking.

What are those three most important qualities or needs?

First quality or need is faith. I wanted a godly woman.

Second quality is family. I wanted a woman who put our family first over her career. I wanted a woman who wanted to stay home and raise a family, not because I wanted her to but she wanted to. I have no problem with career women.

Third quality is finances. I wanted a woman who was good with our finances. She spends and invests wisely.

I am proud to report that my wife has all three of these qualities and needs. This is what makes our marriage great. The fact that my wife doesn’t like to cook or clean doesn’t bother me, because it is not one of my three important qualities or needs. I can live without a clean house, and I can cook my own food.

My wife is a very smart, gifted, and blessed woman, everything she touches turns to gold. Since whatever she touches turns to gold, I let her make all the decisions in our family.

My family has been blessed because of her good decisions. I know that I will get some push back from some people that my wife has too much power. For me, I am okay with her having too much power as long as my family is blessed and that is all that matters to me.

Today, I have a great marriage because I am married to a great woman. Like every marriage, we have our challenges but these challenges are opportunities to make our marriage grow stronger.