When I was young there was a slogan many of my friends believed in—never trust anyone over 30. I have to admit I leaned in that direction. Today not only am I older than that—a lot older—my marriage is. Today my marriage turns 40.
That boggles my mind.
I loved Donna the day I married her—at least to the degree I was capable of loving. If you knew us well then, you know that wasn’t particularly “deep”. She was no better at it than I was. Many people told us to just divorce and start over—we were so young it wouldn’t matter. But we said no. We decided that our vows were before God so they couldn’t be broken. So we stayed together—and we were miserable.
We didn’t like miserable.
So we decided to try to not be miserable. We admitted we didn’t know how to love one another, and we tried with the help of more mature Christians to learn how. Over the years we loved each other—inconsistently. But we loved each other to the best of our ability—and committed ourselves to increase that ability. And we did. Today, we love each other in ways we couldn’t even understand 40 years ago. And we’re not done.
I share this to celebrate. I share this to give credit to God for allowing us to love each other and build a life together all these years. And I share this to encourage others, because Donna and I are truly not that special. We are as selfish and insecure and inconsistent as anyone else—except that we are aware of that fact and still come together before God and ask him to help us love one another.
And he does.
Happy Anniversary Lady—and thank you Lord for letting us belong to one another.
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