A great story started the day I said, “I do.”
Twelve houses.
The white walls adorned with memorabilia from across the world, family pictures, children’s art work, crayon marks, dents from movers, stained carpets, spaghetti splatters, mismatched furniture, tear-stained comforters, and laughter filled curtains.
Matthew 6: 19-21 ESV
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust[a] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also…”
Seven Duty Stations.
Family, old friends and new, military and church families, lost memories along the way. Five deployments and midnight phone calls. Hurricanes, blizzards, tornadoes and droughts, weather to love and weather to hate, but the love in our hearts always felt like home.
Psalm 91: 11 ESV
For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
Four babies.
Baby born into just her mother’s arms, waiting to meet her daddy from afar. Babies screaming into life as their father waited to catch them. Late nights and sweet faces. Daddy smiles and Mommy cuddles. Postcards home filled with butterfly kisses. Little ones watching at the windows as faces breathe frost upon cold nights. Red, white and blue standing on the pier. Bouncing baby boy waiting for the wrestling match upon the third living room floor in just two years. Sweet little girls twirling at the dance with their Knight in Shining Armor that they call “Daddy.” Students at home. Teacher in her pajamas. Tears, laughter, and waiting. This is OUR happily, ever- after.
Psalm 127: 3-5 ESV
3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children[a] of one’s youth.
5 Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
Endurance.
Marriage and life take work. Faced with the world breathing down our necks, but fighting for truth, love and life. Modern culture bringing us down as we take up our own cross of self-worth and entwine ourselves in our covenant to each other. Long good-byes and fair winds bringing us back together. Late nights and early morning kisses. Boxes and boxes with many miles to go. Arguments, tears, and shoulders of strength. Turning to truth that lies open in His Word.
Romans 5: 3-4 ESV
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope
Love.
Never fails.
1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 ESV
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[a] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Here’s to the 17 years…. and the lifetime that we look forward to. Happiest Anniversary to my love.