"Forty years...to the same man?!" So asked one of my ESL students, amazed! "How old ARE you?!" Retorted a GED student of mine, after learning of my 40 years of marriage.
Actually old enough to be married 43 years today!
Marriage for now 43 years hasn't always been easy to say the least. (See another year's post for some specifics). In fact, marriage is God's trick, according to one respected Christian author I follow. If you achieve bliss, enjoy it because it will be fleeting. Why? Because marriage is less about making us happy and more about making us holy...and desperate for our Savior Jesus!
My husband John is a precious man. I can hardly believe he has endured all these years with me, never wavering, always faithful and true, despite my "crustiness!"
In fact, in a recent conversation of ours, I likened myself to a character in the well-known short story, The Ransom of Red Chief.
The Ransom of Red Chief is a 1910 short story by O. Henry. It follows two men who kidnap and attempt to ransom a wealthy Alabaman's son; eventually, the men are driven to distraction by the boy and end up having to pay the boy's father to take him back.
At times I have been like that boy and have driven my poor husband to distraction.
But thankfully, John has kept me and I have kept him. And we thank God for each other...despite, or maybe because of, our struggles. Because as we have been saying in recent years,
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made.
Our times are in his hand who saith,
'A whole I planned, youth shows but half;
Trust God: See all, nor be afraid!'
Robert Browning
So on this our 43rd anniversary, I thank God and you, dear John Loyd, for all these years...of occasional bliss, growing friendship, challenging companionship, increasing oneness, and enduring sacrificial love.