Sherene Chan
“Teamwork, coupled with endurance, patience and a never-give-up attitude, is essential.”
CK Lee and I have been married for 24 years and we have two boys: Ee Ren, 21, and Ee Gene, 20. We are rather close, perhaps because we have not had a maid since the boys were about 12 years old. We do house chores together and the two boys are very independent.
I had dreamt of climbing Mount Kinabalu since my university days, so I was excited when I received an email from Focus on the Family Malaysia about the Mt Kinabalu climb. Better still, the climb aimed to strengthen marriages and raise funds for charity. But the best thing was that CK agreed to join me in the event.
The few days out in beautiful nature really strengthened our marriage and helped us know and appreciate each other more. During the climb up to the peak of Mt Kinabalu, we learned that teamwork, coupled with endurance, patience and a never-give-up attitude, is essential. These attributes also apply to our marriage as sometimes, we have to endure and be patient with each other, especially when changes occur in our lives as we both age.
Marriage has lots of challenges and we both have to find ways to overcome them and never give up. To achieve our goal in life, we have to prepare ourselves, put in the effort and work towards our goal. To scale greater heights, we need synergistic energy, i.e. hubby-wife energy.
We also learned not to over-depend and set high expectation on each other; give each other time and space; and have open communication, trust and obedience. Strong unconditional love between couples is essential during good and bad times, while spiritual values help guide and give us the strength to move on.
I also discovered that CK is really a caring and patient person as he followed my pace without complaining, and he showed his love for me by ensuring that I was safe. This experience with him has reaffirmed our marriage journey.
Indeed, after this mountain climbing experience, I knew nothing was impossible!
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