Celebrating a Milestone!

Yesterday I celebrated a pretty decent milestone.  No, I’m not another year older – though that isn’t too far away; but my marriage is.  It has now been 35 years since my husband and I decided to publicly declare our love for each other and our desire to commit ourselves to a lifetime of living together and serving God together!  In some ways it seems like a long time ago, and in others it seems like just yesterday.

As a couple, we have experienced a lot of life’s ups and downs.  This has included painful physical illnesses and limitations, financial setbacks, changes in relationships with friends and family, and the constant process of spiritual growth both individually and together.  Life is like that for all of us – since we were created for eternity (Ecclesiastes 3:11), life here on earth falls short in some way for every one of us.  No matter how much joy we experience, there is always some level of pain as well.  But the beauty of celebrating an anniversary each year is the opportunity to reflect on the good things that God has done in our life together and the pieces of himself he has shown us through the years.  There’s always plenty of other time to recognize the hard times.

So today I am thankful for a husband who made a conscious and lasting commitment at the tender age of 19 to love me in spite of all my faults, which are many.  I’m thankful for a man who was willing to do whatever it took (sometimes 2 or 3 jobs) for me to be at home with our children fulltime.  I am thankful that my husband continues to be willing to work hard so that I can still be at home, where my heart has always been.  I’m thankful for a husband who loves God and desires to please and serve him first and foremost.

I’m also thankful for the way God has taken two young and naïve people and turned us into a couple that has been used by him in many ways that we never imagined when we got married.  In fact, some of our greatest ability to be used by God has come from some of our most painful experiences.  But that’s the way God works – he’s the only one with the ability to take what we call bad and turn it to good (Romans 8:28).  Our wedding ended with a song that asked God to make us the couple he wants us to be and to make our lives a sermon.  Today we see more clearly exactly what we were asking and how good God has been to answer that prayer the way he has – even though some of the answer has been painful.

Today I’m rejoicing that God can be counted on to complete the work that he started in us as a couple 35 years ago (Philippians 1:6).  We chose to commit our lives to each other and to God’s purposes in our marriage – but he’s the one who knew what he had planned and what each step of the way would look like.  I am so blessed and grateful for the gift of my husband and for God’s partnership with us in this marriage.  Another song in our wedding said it this way:

God, from the beginning, had it in his plan

To join into one flesh this woman and this man.

In the fullness of the Spirit’s love, we move to make our stand

For the binding of a promise between God, a woman and a man.   

Praise God that “a cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12).  I love you, Ron – looking forward to the rest of our journey together with God and each other!