Stressing Grapes

So I watched a movie on Netflix last night.  The movie itself was eh, kinda lame but it had a little scene near the end that had a really profound impact on me.  The movie was about a young couple who recently got married.  The girl is a marriage councilor and when she finds out her parents are getting a divorce after 30 years she feels like she has to fix it.  But in the process she forgets to nurture her own budding marriage and it starts to fall apart. 

Towards the end of the movie, after her parents are back together she is sitting with her dad wondering if she will get her marriage back to where it was before.  Her dad says to her, "You know Charlie (the hubby who is also a wine maker) once told me that to make the best wine that the growers often intentionally stress out the grapes.  They don't water them and make them last long hours in the hot sun.  The point is that only the best, strongest grapes survive.  The lesser, weaker ones fall to the wayside and what is left makes the sweetest, best tasting wine.   Marriages are just like those grapes."

That really got me thinking.  We are approaching our 10 year wedding anniversary this year and we have really been through some major "stressing" throughout those years.  And as we have gone through those fires we really are stronger and have a better marriage because of it.  It is work.  Hard work.  Often requiring much forgiveness from each other.  But the end (or I guess the middle) result is well worth it.  We are better together and have a greater love than ever before.