~ Reflecting on our 22 Years of Marriage ~

On Saturday Matt and I will celebrate 22 years of marriage! Praise the Lord! I can truly say that every day is sweeter and we treasure growing old together! I actually just told Matt that the other day. I'm so blessed to grow old with him...my best friend. Though no one wants to grow old, that is part of this life here on earth and I have the honor of doing just that with him! We don't have an anniversary trip planned this year as we normally do. After some crazy weather around here and being on the tail end of basketball season, we are hoping to take a quick trip in the spring. For us it just means extending our anniversary celebration! Haha! Nothing fancy this year, but anytime away and alone with my sweetie is precious indeed. 

Anyone that knows Matt and me very well understands how important our marriage is to us. It is something we cherish and we work hard at as well. So, in honor of our 22 years of marital bliss, I am going to post devotions this week based on our marriage. God has given me a strong desire this year to encourage marriages. Though ours is not perfect, we do take it seriously and enjoy the beautiful covenant we took in the presence of our God. I have been married to Matt for over half of my life and it would be fitting to say that God has given me some pretty incredible "teachable moments" during these last 22 years. It has not always been romance and roses (although the majority has) and at some points has been down right hard. But God has been so faithful and, through Him, our marriage has endured some pretty rough terrain. Terrain that has tested us and our commitment to each other but brought us to the place in which the covenant we took before God on February 8, 1992, has become even more special....more treasured...more sacred!

I look forward to sharing with you our marital journey this week. Taking a walk down memory lane can be so exciting. Being reminded of how we met, how we fell in love, and how we continue to do "life" everyday with 2 busy jobs, 2 active teenagers and another child, and many other things thrown in the mix, can only make us stronger and I look forward to sharing that with you. I often share these memories with our kids and, believe it or not, they seem to enjoy hearing them. Marriage is a blessing! In a day and age where marriage is seen as a contract between two people instead of a covenant before Almighty God, I count it an honor to share with the world the secret to a long and lasting marriage. That secret........is God front and center!

I hope you will join me this week as I count down the days of my 22nd wedding anniversary by sharing our memories. My purpose is to reflect on where we've been so we can continue moving forward but it is also to inspire and challenge those of you who feel burdened in your own marriage or are hoping to be married one day. Maybe you are looking for hope that good marriages still exist and is possible. Well, it is possible when focus and priorities are God-centered. We haven't always gotten it right in our 22 years but our mistakes have been used to learn and grow so that our marriage can remain strong. We will make more mistakes through our years together, of this I'm sure, but we will use them to better ourselves and let God work in us. 

I'm excited to take you on our journey! My friend, grab a cup of coffee in the morning and join me for my walk down memory lane!

"But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Mark 10:6-9 (NKJV)