These are a Few of My Favorite Things - 15 Years of (Happy) Marriage

So, this last week John and I celebrated 15 years of marriage.

I've known John for 20 years now.  Since we started "dating" a month after we met, we have been a couple now for 20 years.

It truly seems like it was just yesterday that we met at college and I was calling my friend and saying "There's this guy.  And he's so cute!"  :)

We've been through so much together and I'm so very, very grateful that I have had him to go through all these difficult things with.

A friend of mine who has now been divorced for a few years asked me what we were doing over Memorial Day 2012 and I said going to visit my in-laws and getting family photos taken to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.  She asked, in all seriousness, "How do people stay married that long? Do they just put up with a lot of s&$t?"

After a bit of discussion, since I was truly puzzled by what she meant, it was revealed that her ex-husband was mentally, verbally and emotionally abusive to her and their children.  She had put up with a lot that she never, ever should have and to put up with.  And I told her so.  I also told her that I told her that since I didn't know what it was like not to be happy in my marriage, I didn't know anything else, and it made it relatively easy to stay married..

It breaks my heart that so many people today do not know a good relationship from a bad one. 

John and I have been really and truly blessed to have parents who have been married through thick and thin for "eons" now - my parents for 55 years and his parents for 41 years  now.   We have seen how to make a good marriage continue working through thick and thin.  We have been so very blessed to never have been in abusive situations - physical or emotionally - nor have we watched our parents be in a relationship where that occurs. 

I love John with all my heart - really and truly - far, far more than I did the day I married him.

He has such a servant heart.

He works so very hard.

He really cares about those around him.

He loves me.

He loves our children.

He loves the Lord.

John making my coffee for me while we were camping.

Every morning while camping he gets up early-early to make my coffee for me.  He knows I "need" my morning coffee and is willing to make it for me.  He says he loves making it. I think he loves not having a cranky caffeine-deprived wife more! :)

Walking together with Buddy and Missy - hand in hand with the Buddy.

 He has always enjoyed being a Dad so very much.  And he is a "Daddy" in the full sense of the word!  The children are just as comfortable with him as with me and he is willing to run the children around, feed them dinner and all that "stuff" that Mom's usually do so I can work my odd ours.  He even chose to get up nights when the children were babies - partly since he knows now much sleep I need, and partly because he loved that uninterrupted snuggle time with the kiddos. Watching him be such a hands-on Dad has made me love him so much more than I did before.

Preparing for worship at one of the churches this summer.

These last few years have been painful, stretching years in so many ways and John has grown so well into his role as a soon-to-be-Pastor. I'm so excited to watch him accept and thrive in this calling from God!  He is so "natural" at this role and it has been a true privilege and honor walking through this Seminary journey to Ordination with him.  I get to read his papers and sermons, iron his robes and make sure he knows how to pronounce all the names on the prayer list.  I get to greet people on Sunday morning, pray with him for our precious church family (all of it!) and their needs, and learn right along with him about our Church.    And I do mean "get to" - it is something I don't "have to" - it is nothing short of a privilege!

We've been through so very much in these 15 years.

And truly, my marriage - all 15 years of it - is one of my favorite things.

Soli Deo Gloria.
Always.