Today is our 18th anniversary. 18 years ago we stood up in front of family and friends, and made promises to each other. I’m not usually one to make big public declarations of love, but at eighteen years together I think I’d like to say this to the world. Or at least the three people that read our blog.
It’s been 18 years of loving each other, loving Jesus, Starbucks dates, couch dates, kitchen dance parties, home repairs, baby stuff, toddler stuff, tween stuff, backyard marshmallow roasting, traveling, coffee, hard work, everything from Tribes to Minecraft, more coffee, life groups, one cross-town move, one cross-border move, one cross-state move, one boy, one dog, two cats, two ambulance trips, 3 ER visits, four homes, and a dissertation (that’s still in the works). We’ve done a lot of laughing, some crying, and we’ve made a lot of memories.
Back when we first started out, I had no clue about how to be married. I am thankful that I married someone who is stubborn – that might sound a little crazy, but he is stubborn enough to not let me stay in destructive patterns, stubborn enough to love me when I don’t act very lovable, and stubborn enough to stick with it through the hard times. That’s the best kind of stubborn. 18 years ago, I didn’t understand how marriage was sacred. I really didn’t understand that marriage is more about holiness than happiness. I didn’t know how we would become a team. I didn’t know how we would navigate the hard parts of life together. We’ve done that and more, and by the grace of God we’ll keep doing it together.
This, just for anyone who doesn’t know, is all because of that one time when a guy made a silly joke in a seminary class, which made me turn around and see a pair of blue eyes that I wanted to just keep looking at. There’s a line from a Ben Folds song, The Luckiest, that always makes me think of this – “And in a wide sea of eyes, I see one pair that I recognize… and I know that I am, I am, I am the luckiest.” Luck has nothing to do with it, but those blue eyes are just the beginning of the things I love about him.
18 years has flown by in many ways. It almost doesn’t seem possible that it’s that long, but it really is! I’m looking forward to many more years together, walking through whatever doors God opens for us.
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