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| The younger us, over ten years ago... but the happier us just keeps getting happier. |
A
decade is a period of ten years. As of today – New Year’s Eve, 2012 – that’s
how long Lisa and I have been married. Happy anniversary, Lisa!
Ten
years is a long time in marriage years, especially the way society has become
so comfortable with the idea of divorce. As of about 6:15 P.M., Lisa and I will
officially hit that ten year mark. That’s 120 months, or a little more than 521
weeks, or 87,672 hours, or 5,260,320 minutes, or if we could pinpoint it,
315,619,200 seconds. It’s a milestone to say the least.
I’ll
never forget, before we got married, our pastor Daryle Nichols said to me in
our one marriage counseling session: “Greg, do you realize that God is going to
hold you responsible for…” I forget exactly what he said after that, but those
were the most important words I’ve ever heard in my life. He meant that the
vows I was going to make weren’t a joke – God was going to hold me to them. And
God fully expected me to keep them all. Marriage and family became serious
business that night, and although I don’t remember much else about that
session, it was a life-changer.
Brother
Daryle married us in the old sanctuary on a Tuesday night – New Year’s Eve,
2002, at 6:00 P.M. To our surprise, it was standing room only. We had a simple
wedding; my brother was Best Man, and Lisa’s brother was the other Best Man (or
Maid of Honor as we like to kid him). We wanted a simple wedding that kind of
reflected who we both were, but we did splurge on our wedding rings. That was
important to us.
We had
a verse engraved inside each of our rings. Lisa’s just has “Matthew 19:6”
because hers is so small, but mine reads, “Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. Matthew
19:6.”
Now,
that may sound kind of un-romantic or anti-divorce, but you would be missing
the point. From the very beginning, we recognized that our marriage was
something God had orchestrated. He had brought us together as one flesh. Back
then, we just knew that divorce was off the table, but as we grew spiritually, it became
more about depending on God to preserve our marriage, through the good and the
bad.
Lisa
and I have faced some very rough… some awful times. But the worst times we’ve
faced have all ended up being the best years of our marriage. How can that be?
How can I honestly say that times when I have seen my wife in pain, times when
I have seen her suffer, times when I have seen her heartbroken as we left our
son in the hospital were the best years of our marriage? Because from Day 1,
ten years ago, God has had our marriage in His hands, protecting us, lifting us
up, and making sure we knew it was Him doing it all.
We
are not special, and are not particularly strong… but God is. Today isn’t a
celebration of us. It’s a celebration of Him. He took two polar opposites and
made them inseparable. He has brought us through the impossible… repeatedly! We
are just plain, messed up folks like everyone else, but we have entrusted our marriage
and family to God instead of ourselves. Who better to preserve us that the One
who joined us together?
Thank
you Lord.
“Who am I,
Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?”
2 Samuel 7:18
