Thirty years and counting

Just this past Monday, my beloved and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary.

It's hard to believe that we have been married for that long. We actually met in 1975 and began dating about a year and a half later. She has given me great joy for all these years. She has stood beside me to support me through everything we have experienced. There have been many wonderful experiences and there have been some very difficult experiences. We have lost family members and friends to death, we have struggled as every couple struggles. Yet, she has stood there as the song says: "stand by your man".

Back in 1981 we stood before God, our family and friends and committed to love, honour and respect each other. To date, we have worked hard at learning to be loving and respectful and with God's help we have more than survived these 30 years, we have thrived and grown in our love and respect for each other.

I am a very fortunate man to have known, courted, loved, married and lived with this amazing person for these years. I have been blessed to have her stand by me especially when I have failed. She is a Proverbs 31 woman and is the epitome of grace when it comes to how she treats me. She loves, respects and defends me. There is a saying that states" "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" but I prefer to say that there is no fury like the fury my beloved displays when she feels that I or one of our children have been attacked unjustly. Heaven will need to help the one who attacks us. That may be their only recourse.

And yet, she forgives.

My only wish is for as many more years that the Lord will give us.

Broken and restored

I have not posted in some time because I just haven't been able to. It felt like my insides were all bunched up and nothing was able to come out. Then, this past weekend happened. It was supposed to be a time for me to visit my son at his internship in North Carolina, a time to hear a new song he had written and recorded and played first at the church.

But God had different plans for me. My sons song was/is amazing, but my purpose for being there was for God to break through some of the defences I have built for years. Why I wouldn't let this happen in my church is too easy to answer, pride.

So, there I was with my son, at two services. When I heard him play his song I was a proud papa. I enjoyed everything that morning until the team played a song I had never heard. As I heard it in the first service I felt something breaking, but in my pride I hung on. "This would definitely not be the place to break down would it", I said to myself? The second service(very much like the first started, his song was second, again. The pastor preached the same message, with some changes. Then God broke me. That may not be correct grammar, but that is what happened.

I was introduced to a song by John Mark Mcmillan called "How He loves" and for the second time I felt this breaking inside. I started to cry and couldn't stop. I knew that I needed to repair a relationship and the people I needed to talk to were sitting right beside me, what a coincidence, not! Now, I play this song and I cry every time. There is a powerful story to this song, the writer tells of the accidental death of a close friend and the anger he experienced. But, he also speaks of the knowledge that God still loves us, no matter the circumstances of our lives. And even when we are mad at Him, He still loves us.



So, that surprise visit to my son (he did know I was coming) has turned into a huge weekend of passion for God and restoration. Who knew?