Sixteen Years of Loving and Learning

Sixteen years ago, I walked down the red carpeted aisle, wearing a cream-colored pant suit and holding a tiny antique bible decorated (by my mother) with white lace and burgundy ribbons, pearls, and tiny flowers and a small bouquet of ivory roses in my shaking hands. My long wavy hair was pulled up on one side with a white flower-encrusted comb. He waited for me at the end of the aisle, just a boy... barely two years older than our son is now...with a tender smile on his face. With shaking hands and tearful eyes, we made promises that were so much bigger than our eighteen- year- old selves could ever have conceived. Nothing was heard above the sound of our sniffles among the few who gathered with us that day.

We promised to love and cherish,

To honor and obey,

In sickness and in health,

For richer or for poorer...

Sixteen years ago, we made promises with lovely flowery words...and we felt the weight of what we didn't even know heavy on our shoulders. And, we have spent the last sixteen years, keeping those promises.

We have loved and cherished in times when one or both of us were unlovable. We have learned about the kind of love that isn't self-seeking, is patient and kind, always hopes, always endures, isn't puffed up, doesn't keep a record of wrongs. We have learned it over dirty dishes, unbalanced checkbooks, broken promises, unmet expectations, piled up laundry, broken stuff, parenting demands, and long work days. We have learned it while walking away...while returning...and while remaining and abiding. We have learned it when we've said the things that you can't take back...and forgiven those same things. We have learned while laughing until we cry...and crying until we laugh.

We have learned to honor each other when one or both of us is not deserving of honor...and when by the grace of God, we are. We've learned to obey the One who carries us, and to serve one another because of His example. We've learned to submit to one another as we submit to Him.

We have learned of sickness and we've been grateful for health. We have learned in the hospital rooms of those we loved, and in our own time spent in the hospital bed. We have learned while standing over the graves of our children and while both weeping and rejoicing in the birthing rooms where we've found both the promise of life on earth and eternal life in heaven.

We have learned while holding hands in prayer, lifting hands in worship, and allowing the Holy Spirit to work miraculously in our lives to make us one flesh. It is one of my favorite miracles, I must say...the uniting of two hearts and minds to make one flesh. A beautiful picture of love...the love He has for us and the love He gives to us for one another.

We have learned much...

And sixteen years, two apartments (early days), one little house (our dwelling for the last fifteen yrs.), several dogs (2 currently), five children (including three in heaven, one teenager, and one very lively nine-year-old), a few jobs, more losses, financial ups and downs, many good friends, countless answered prayers, lots of hard work, and some souls saved and lives changed in Jesus along the way... we are still learning. I never get tired of walking through this life with him. And I look forward to the next chapter.

Happy Anniversary, Tim...my love for you grows with each passing year and there is no one I'd rather walk through this life with, laughing along the way.

---------------------------------------------------------

Tomorrow (Thursday) on the Walking With You Page, we will be doing a lesson on Guilt and Fear from the Threads of Hope study. We'll be sharing encouragement through God's Word for those who are walking through the valley of grief.