This past month we celebrated another anniversary. A lot of years have gone by since he popped
the question and I said "yes". So much of
life has happened since then that looking back it feels like we were just two
young kids, madly in love with no clue at all about married life. That
evening at the altar with the sun shining through the church window, we each committed
our lives to each other. We said our
vows and lit our candle. He kissed his
bride, we ate our cake, and then ran through a shower of birdseed. We
arrived at the church in separate cars, we left together just the two of us.
Our love story beginning…
Together we have enjoyed a honeymoon, set up our first
apartment and learned how each of us enjoyed spending our personal time. We have endured the flu, food poisoning, mono,
bug bites and allergic reactions, morning sickness, cancer and celiac
disease. We have enjoyed vacations, weekend family
getaways, and romantic bed and breakfast spots. We studied Autism and ABA therapies, and picked
out homeschool curriculum. We have laughed together and cried together. We have figured out how to make groceries last
longer to get us to another paycheck and enjoyed steak dinners and romantic
anniversary celebrations. We have had vehicles break down on the side of the
road, cleaned up vomit from the back seat of the van, and experienced riding in
a tow truck down a mountain together. We
have experienced the heartache of having friends turn against us and talked
together about the anxiety of making new friends after relocating. Together we
have remodeled a house, prepared for a home study and cried together as we
welcomed a new child into our family (four times in a hospital room, two times
in a court room). We have experienced the heart wrenching pain of burying a
child and felt the isolation from each other as we grieved. We have planted a garden together and
shoveled snow together. We have argued
about cat dishes, car payments, hair styles, extended family and furniture
placement. We have shared what God is
teaching us in our quiet times and read aloud our personal journals to each other. For the past twenty seven years we have
kissed each other goodnight, gotten up in the morning, made the bed together and went about our day
as a couple. It has been wonderful and
it has been difficult. It has been us
doing life – together.
I have spent a lot of time this month thinking about the
blessings and the challenges that we have had through the years. They
have grown us together. The good times
as well as the bad has shown us just how much we need God. One of the most beautiful things about being
married for a significant length of time, is being able to watch the
sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in your spouse’s life. To be able to watch as God uses the
difficulties and the blessings in life to conform us to the image of His Son. When I look back over the past twenty-seven
years I see God’s hand in all of it. He
has taken two young kids and has walked with us as we did life together. He has taught us, encouraged us, grown us, and
blessed us. He has drawn us to Himself
and to each other.
I am so thankful that God has given me someone to do life
with. I am truly blessed. My prayer is that I will be able to look back
twenty seven years from now and see how God has continued to work in our lives,
matured us and made us more like Him.
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