I like what Michelle Gielan has to say about keeping your promises.

"When we don't keep a promise to someone, it communicates to that person that we don't value him or her. We have chosen to put something else ahead of our commitment. Even when we break small promises, others learn that they cannot count on us. Tiny fissures develop in our relationships marked by broken promises."

An example of not keeping promises and breaking down trust in a relationship is the stormy and sad marriage of Sofya and Leo Tolstoy. Reading their diaries was difficult for me. They both promised to be there for one another, and they both yearned to be understood, yet through their many years together they couldn't or wouldn't give that gift to one another.

Leo Tolstoy: "Nobody will ever understand me."

Sofya Tolstoy: "He has never taken the trouble to understand me, and does not know me in the least."

Source: Source: William L. Shirer. Love and Hatred: The Troubled Marriage of Leo & Sonja Tolstoy. 1994. backcover.

Poll: Do you keep your word? Vote!

When women decide to keep their birth names after marriage, people today aren't shocked. That wasn't the case back in the 1850s.

Lucy Stone started the trend to keep her own last (birth) name when she married in 1855. Much later, in the 1970s, more women made the same decision regarding their surnames. Some couples like Jennifer Mulhern Granholm and Daniel Granholm Mulhern take one another's surnames as their middle names.

It was around thirty years ago that the ACLU filed a lawsuit in Rhode Island concerning a woman's right to choose which name she wanted to use. There are many people grateful that Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell had enough love and respect for one another to walk that unpopular journey so many years ago.

Back in June 2011, David Frum explained why he believed he was wrong about same-sex marriage saying "The case against same-sex marriage has been tested against reality. The case has not passed its test." We agree and don't see how the marriage of two men or two women can hurt our marriage. President Obama personally came to that same conclusion today while Mitt Romney disagreed.

President Obama: "I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don't Ask Don't Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I've just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married ... You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples. There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we're talking about their friends and their parents and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn't dawn on them that somehow their friends' parents would be treated differently. It doesn't make sense to them and frankly, that's the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective ... This is something that, you know, we've talked about over the years and she [Michelle], you know, she feels the same way, she feels the same way that I do."
Source: Rick Klein. "President Obama Affirms His Support for Same Sex Marriage." GMA.yahoo.com. 5/09/2012.

Mitt Romney: "My view is that marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman. That's the position I've had for some time, and I don't intend to make any adjustments at this point. ... Or ever, by the way."
Source: Rick Klein. "President Obama Affirms His Support for Same Sex Marriage." GMA.yahoo.com. 5/09/2012.

Creating time capsules on your wedding anniversaries won't take a lot of time. Plus, years from now, opening those capsules will mean a great deal to both of you and your children.

Poll: Do you and your spouse celebrate your wedding anniversaries? Vote!