On their 25th wedding anniversary and during the banquet celebrating it, Joseph was asked to give his friends a brief account of the benefits of a marriage of such long duration.

“Tell us Joseph, just what is it you have learned from all those wonderful years with your wife?”

Joseph responds, “Well, I’ve learned that marriage is the best teacher of all. It teaches you loyalty, meekness, forbearance, self-restraint, forgiveness — and a great many other qualities you wouldn’t have needed if you’d stayed single.”

Vocabulary Help

  • brief account – relato breve, curto
  • forbearance – paciência
  • forgiveness – perdão
  • give (give, gave, given) – dar
  • learn (learn, learnt, learnt) – aprender
  • marriage – casamento
  • meekness – mansidão
  • need – precisar, necessitar
  • self-restraint – autodomínio
  • stay single – permanecer solteiro
  • such long duration – de tão longa duração
  • wedding anniversary – aniversário de casamento
  • wife – esposa
  • wonderful – maravilhoso