Two decades down

Four more to go? Five more?

Twenty years ago today I married my best friend. I know that sounds trite but it is absolutely true. I didn't and I don't have a group of buddies I hang out with to relax. When I have some down time, I want to spend it with my wife. Granted my idea of spending time with her might include playing the X-box but still. My wife is the one I gripe to, the one I bounce ideas off of, the one who keeps me focused, the one who knows things that no one else knows about me.

In those twenty years, we have beaten the odds. We dated as teens. We got married very young (I was twenty and couldn't even legally drink champagne at my own wedding!). We also had children very early. My wife got pregnant in the first year of our marriage and we had two babies while I was still in college. We did everything that prevailing wisdom says is a recipe for disaster. By God's grace (with heaping helpings of patience from my wife) we are still together twenty years later and neither of us can even imagine life without the other.

In those twenty years a lot has happened. We grew up together unlike those who marry at an older age so our formative years as adults were spent together. Rather than finding out who we were and then getting married, we got married and found out together. Not much will speed up the maturation process like marriage and family! We came to faith together. We have had a ton of kids. We have moved way more than we wanted and lived lots of places, from New Hampshire to Wyoming, northern Michigan to Kentucky. Through it all, the one consistent factor was each other and the presence of God working, even during those years when we didn't realize it.

God knew what He was doing when against the odds He brought together a farmer's daughter and a doctor's son from opposite sides of Toledo. a guy who learned to be a pretty good cook and a lady who can outwork most men. His hand is clear in bringing us together and keeping us together throughout the years. I honestly say I look forward to growing old(er) together, becoming grandparents and perhaps great-grandparents together. May God use our marriage as a witness to the world that testifies of His grace and may God grant us strength, patience, humility and grace in the face of struggle like He has with Becky and Dave Black and others. Our marriage is not about us. It is about Him. May it always glorify His name!