Photo: the fruit of 40 years
The same man has walked this path with me for 14,600 nights and days. Well, 14,609 counting February 29s. Today is officially our 40th anniversary. (Yup. I was a teenage bride.)
He’s amazing.
Who can possibly try to comprehend how the person they vow to be faithful to will change and grow in 40 years? Who can see the person they will become themselves?
We’ve both changed.
At times when one of us was moving faster than the other on this road the one lagging behind (let’s face it, the most comfortable one) started shouting, “Change back! This is messing things up!”
I think sometimes we’re like those roller derby guys who fling a fellow team member forward every once in a while. We do take turns, alternating the shoving of each other ahead –and sometimes we resort to dragging each other kicking and screaming into a new paradigm. But we do eventually walk side by side again. I think it has been a fruitful partnership.
I have not been an easy woman to live with. My man loves order and routine. A calendar with all the squares filled in is my idea of being stuck in a box — with the lid nailed down.
He deals with numbers and loves mathematical puzzles with tidy right-or-wrong answers at the bottom of the page. Not only do I not remember the seven times table, but I can’t even remember what I did with my calculator. Some of his greatest professional discoveries have come about as a result of trying to fix me.
He bases his decisions on solid, empirical, evidence-based research. I sail on symbolism and intuitive hunches.
He is mostly left-brained. I am mostly right… I am also mostly right-brained.
But even though I have a totally alien way of thinking, he keeps trying to understand me.
He has been faithful though. In forty years I have never for a moment doubted his love. He has been there through the really horrible years when I couldn’t stand to be with myself. More importantly he has been there in the good years when I have had good things to share and he rejoices with me.
Best of all he loves God, and he knows God loves him, so he can afford to be a giver. There’s always more where that came from.
I love you, my man, more than I did on that hot innocent September afternoon 40 years ago. You’re a keeper.
Charis: Subject to Change 
Congratulations
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Very Sweet. Congratulations! 🙂
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Reblogged this on Iris Pinson.
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Congratulations!!! We celebrate 31 years on Wednesday. 🙂
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Congratulations, you two (too).
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Congratulations on 40 years of marriage! What an accomplishment. May God grant you many more.
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Blessings to you both! What a wonderful example of love and commitment. 🙂
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Congratulations! What a beautiful testimony to the Lord’s goodness and love!
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Thank you, all!
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I will add my happy congratulations, and note that you were able to do enough math to come up with your title! Found the calculator?
No judgement here. I can totally relate. 🙂
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Thanks. Yeah. I bought an extra big bright yellow one. The effort at math was my gift to him. Well, part of it.
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MY MORNDAY ,,HI TOO MY FRIENDS BE BLESSET IN THE LORD,,,,SIS DOT…………………………………….“What a glorious Lord! He who daily bears our burdens also gives us our salvation” Psalm 68:19
Did it ever occur to you that you are disobeying God when you carry your own burdens, when you are worried, frustrated and confused over circumstances? That is exactly what God’s Word says.
In 1 Peter 5:7, God gives a specific command to His children, “Cast…all your cares upon Him; for He careth for you“. Not to cast all of one’s cares upon the Lord is to disobey Him and to deny oneself that supernatural walk with God among men.
Is it not logical to believe that He who loved us so much that He was willing to give His only begotten Son would also be faithful to keep His promise to bear our burdens daily?
As the psalmist so aptly states, the Lord bears our burdens on a daily basis for the believer, the day will never come when God fails to carry our load, to strengthen us, to impart power to us through His indwelling Holy Spirit – if we but ask.
Marvel of marvels, the psalmist points out, our heavenly Father not only is our great burden-bearer; He is also the very one who gives us our salvation and the assurance of eternal life. How could anyone ask for more!
With the sure knowledge that our sins are forgiven (salvation) and the assurance that He knows all about every burden we face – more important, He bears them for us – our lives should reflect honor and glory to Him by the way in which we share His blessings and the message of His great love with others.
Provision for the supernatural life is promised in the Old Testament as well as the New, as evidenced by this glorious promise in the Psalms
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