Marriage...Testing Our Faith

It's hard to believe, but this good looking couple to the left just celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary tonight! Yep, that's Allen & I taken a year ago on a trip to visit our son and his bride.

I told Allen as we took a short walk this evening down to our little pond, that it's not possible we've been married that long, since I'm only 35, LOL! We sat on the porch for a few minutes after walking back up the hill and before heading to town for a very nice dinner, holding hands and enjoying being together. But it's not always been that way. We've weathered some incredibly tough times in our marriage, where I wondered if we'd make it at all. My faith has been stretched, pummeled, tested, and practically turned inside out, but I've grown so much as a person, and as a wife.

Isn't that what marriage is supposed to be about? A time to grow, to mature, for the Lord to make the two of us one in Him? Yes, it's often painful, but comes sprinkled with seasons of intense joy. I'm not the person I was when I married...a girl with an expectation of a husband who would fit into the mold I'd created for him out of my own personal daydreams...The Lord is remaking me into a woman who's working hard to love and accept unconditionally, just the way I pray and hope Allen accepts me.

Funny, isn't it? We have so many expectations and ways we want our men to change...but when the shoe is on the other foot, and they're not happy with something we're doing, it hurts. I think I've learned more in those rare times that I've been able to truly evaluate how I'd feel if Allen imposed some of the same 'conditional' love that I've given to him at times....ouch! It wasn't a pretty picture.

We agreed tonight that we want to keep going for another 37 yrs....we'll barely be 90 by then, so I think we'll make it....and I pray the Lord will continue to grow and mature us in our continuing love and commitment to one another.