So thankful for this man of mine

David and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary Aug. 10. Thirty years. Sometimes it’s hard to image it’s been that long and sometimes it feels like yesterday I was walking down the aisle. I am so thankful for David. I am so thankful that we hung in there together, we’ll actually, I’m thankful that he hung in there with me. Often times I say that my parents raised me for the first 23 years and David’s been raising me ever since. I’m only half joking.

David and I met in Sunday School soon after I had graduated from Ole Miss. He being a Mississippi State man offered both of us occasions for playful insults to make their way into conversations. He proposed two months later. My engagement ring he mischievously hid under a State ball cap. If I hadn’t been willing to touch the thing, (it ranks down there with that awful, clanking cow bell), I may have never seen my sparkling ring and that twinkle in his eye as well.

God knew what I needed when he placed David in my life. I on the other hand, didn’t have a clue what I needed; only what I wanted. God knew I had grown shallow, looking for Mr. Right from outside appearances; someone tall (so I could wear high heels), handsome, athletic, smart and a church going man. I did get all those things in David, but also, so much more. His outward appearance got me interested in knowing him for who he really was. Although I had only known him a short amount of time, I knew he was a good man by the way he treated me and others. Kindness, generosity and unconditional love rank very high with me. And in God’s infinite wisdom, He caused David to fall in love and marry me before he had time to change his mind. We married just seven months after that first Sunday introduction.  And then, I saw in David what God see’s in him; and it wasn’t just a man who knew how to sit on the church pew and say the right things. God knew David’s heart and David knew God well, they both do still.

Though together we went to church, we approached our relationship with God differently. I went because I knew I should as someone who was a believer, who knew about Jesus.  But David, he knew Jesus and His love, and he demonstrated that love to me. I couldn’t have asked for anyone better to be my husband and the father of my daughters, Allison and Katelyn. What a difference it has made in our lives for David to be the spiritual head of our household these 30 years, a responsibility he takes seriously, knowing it is the Lord’s Will.  He prays for us, speaks blessings and God’s Word over us, leads us as we seek the Lord’s guidance in decisions, security and provision, and he loves unconditionally, always.

He’s also a lot of fun and I love this journey we are on together; that God of ours, He always has the best plans. And now that we’ve got this marriage thing figured out, for the most part anyway, I’m looking forward to the next 70 years with this man of mine. Oh, how I do love him so.

“For whenever two or more of you are gathered in His name, there is love, there is love.” The Wedding Song, performed in an evening, candlelit wedding ceremony, thirty years ago.