Today is a very special day! Twenty years ago today, I married the love of my life, my knight-in-shining-armor, Ted. It was a gorgeous fall day full of joy and laughter and stunningly blue skies and sunshine that transformed everything it touched into sparkling diamonds. There are very few times that I can pinpoint and say, “THAT moment changed my life.” But today marks the twentieth anniversary of one of those moments.
On Sept 22, 1990, Ted and I stood before Pastor Wendel Romans in front of 30 or so family and friends and pledged our love for one another – for better or worse, for richer or poorer, until death parts us. God did something beautiful on that day. He made us one.
The seas of our marriage haven’t always been calm. In fact, there have been many times when our ship almost capsized. There have been even more times when one of us couldn’t handle the rough waters and almost abandoned the ship. Thank God that Jesus is the calmer of stormy seas.
In the early years of our marriage, every argument we had threatened to tear us apart. I always spent time mentally dividing the furniture, and Ted did the same. Then one day we attended an anniversary party for a couple who’d been married 30 years, and I remember looking at them and thinking, “I can’t imagine him without her, or her without him. They are truly one.” At their party the couple laughingly related a few of their more spectacular disagreements and spats, and I thought, “Will Ted and I one day be able to do that? Or will we be apart, each with our half of the furniture?”
Ted and I talked that night, and I told him, “I want to be that couple. I want us to be so unified that nobody could imagine us apart – especially us.” We determined then to stop dividing the furniture. Divorce was no longer an option. We refused to consider it. You know what? When you’re in the middle of a harsh argument without the option of walking away, you have no choice but to come to a resolution. We did!
Ted, you are still the love of my life. You are one of the best blessings God has given me, and the one I cherish the most. Happy anniversary. I’m praying we’ll have nothing but smooth seas for the next twenty years!