What message do you have for [spouse] that you want her/him to always keep in mind?

Dear Jodi,

Of course I was attracted to you because you were (and still are) the most amazingly beautiful woman.  This isn't something that you were just born with; you take care of yourself and keep yourself in good health.  But, that is not why I asked you to marry me.  I wanted a wife who would help me draw closer to our Savior.  So, when I started to wonder about our future, I asked you about your relationship with Jesus Christ.  Your answer let me know all that I needed to know.  You told me of your doubts.  You told me of your experience overcoming the effects of your train accident.  You told me about your father and the promises he had made the Lord at the time of your accident and your thoughts about him not living up 100% to those promises.  Despite the doubts you claimed to have, I could tell you had great faith.  This is why I asked you to marry me.
   We have done more than our fair share of arguing over the years.  Every time we do, I realize how much I am blessed to have a wife who stands up for her own feelings and her own wishes.  And I also realize how blessed I am to have a wife who stays with me despite my stubbornness--not to mention your own stubbornness.  How on earth could two such bull headed people get along.  But we do, and we are the "goals" of the kids where I teach.
   In the traditional marriage vow of the Christian world, the partners pledge to love each other "for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health."  You certainly have.  Your mother's prediction that "If you marry that Bennion boy, you'll be poor the rest of your life," has proven true.  And yet you have never complained about our poverty.  You have never given a second thought about my health.  You have loved me with only one condition, that I love you too.  And I do.
   You have given me five beautiful, gracious, and capable children--when the medical profession said that you wouldn't be able to have any, or that if you did have any, you wouldn't be able to rear them.  Your faith in the promises of the Lord has proven the world wrong.
   When we were young you used to complain about the many things that you couldn't do because of your accident.  Now look at you and all the things that you have accomplished--and are still doing, in our family, professionally, and in the Church.  You are the best example I know of overcoming life's challenges, of never giving up, of serving others faithfully.
   You are the spiritual heart of our family.  You see to it that we have prayer, family council, family home evening.  You hear the directions from the Spirit of the Lord and have the faith to follow them.  When the Spirit told you that we were to have another child, I had no doubts.  And in faith we did what the world would call religious fanaticism, crazy, or just plain stupid.  But look at the amazing young man we have been blessed with for our faithfulness.  I defy the world and its labels.
   You listened to the voice of the Spirit and had the will to stand up to your parents and move quite literally to the "wilderness."  I have never felt more out of place, alone, or afraid than I felt when we first arrived in Western Kansas.  But, in no time we made the place our home.  You never complained or said, "I wish we had never come here."  You left the beautiful home your parents had helped us buy and moved into a lesser home in Scott City.  We moved from there to a lesser home in Shallow Water.  Now we live in an even lesser home in Stark City.  And yet, you have never complained about any of these homes.  Instead you have worked to make each place livable, beautiful, and comfortable.  I have no doubt that the Heaven I will have with you in the eternities will be a place of glory.
   You have done such an amazing job rearing our children, teaching them to love reading, and teaching them to love the Lord.  My greatest gift to our children was you.  I worked at whatever I could so that you could be home with them.  Of course, there was marrying you in the first place.  Choosing a capable woman was my first gift to my children.  Working so that you could be home with them was the second part of the gift.  I hope that they will never forget how blessed they are to have you.  I will never forget how blessed I am to have you.