Her message clearly resonated with people.
Nikki Pennington and her husband Jer have been together for 13 years.
And the mum of three, who first met her husband when they were teenagers, often gets asked the question “what’s your secret?”
She decided to answer the question in a now viral post to her Facebook page – where she said the only key is to “get up and try again over and over, every damn day”.
Her post begins:
“I know the typical responses from the ‘Don’t go to bed angry’ or the ‘Always say I love you when they leave’.
“You guys, do you know how many times in eleven years Jer has taken residency on the couch prior to us having kids because we were mad?
“Do you know how many times he’s left without us saying ‘I love you’ because kids and life.
“His way of saying ‘I love you’ some mornings is letting me sleep in when he leaves and everyone is still asleep.
“All the ‘secrets’, we’ve broken them.”
Nikki went on to explain that the “secret to a long lasting marriage is there is no secret at all.”
She continued:
“It’s a get up and try again over and over every damn day.
“It’s hanging on tight when you are young, newly married and living on frozen dinners because it’s all you can afford.
“It’s staying up all night in tears with your first newborn child because you both are over tired, overwhelmed and scared to death but you are in it together.
“It’s counting pennies when you are young so that you can build a life together for your future family.
“It’s about knowing that nothing is going to turn out perfect, that your marriage won’t be a highlight reel because that’s not real life.
“It’s about being deep in the trenches of so many obstacles that life could throw you and getting to look over and know that you aren’t alone and that your best friend is walking it with you.”
And Nikki’s post has clearly struck a chord with other people. At the time of writing, her post has gotten over 120,000 shares.
You can read the rest of Nikki’s post below
