Celebrating 33 Years of TREASURE

(re-posted on our 36th celebration)

To my life song with Jesus- my beloved husband and friend,

We go together like:

peanut butter & chocolate, like a wink & a smile, like a wave & the ocean, like copy & paste, like melody & harmony, like cookies and milk.

~

Through the years I’ve thought of us as Adventurers in Life;

Praisers,

Purposeful,

Problem Solvers,

Passionate,

Parents,

Partners,

Until I started writing this tribute! 🙂 – I never have thought of ourselves as Salmon- yes I said salmon- lol,

Salmon swimming upstream- yup- that’s what our marriage has felt like in so many ways.

We wanted to be God-followers which to us meant counter-cultural. 

[Tweet “Following Jesus in our culture is like salmon swimming upstream. #fortitude”]

Our life verse-

Oh magnify, the Lord with me,

and let US exalt His name together.

 

I’ll never forget when we chose that verse to be our core – our compass- our confession!

We’ve always had plenty of ZING- you know the fireworks and sparks- 😉

But the thing that has soldered us together, melding us into His purposes for marriage-

is His mission and calling for our lives.

[Tweet “A 3-fold cord is not easily broken. #marriage #strength”]

We believe(d) that we could exalt

and lift up His name better-

TOGETHER than apart.

 

I remember deciding together that we wanted to do things God’s way- or at least the way we thought He was telling us to do them! LOL-

I’m glad there aren’t things like a crystal ball that tell us exactly what are future holds or surely we would have trembled. But taking each day, hand in hand, following our Leader, has been an adventure beyond belief.

I remember, we raised quite a few eyebrows when we had Sarah Joy 10 months after we got married! Didn’t we know???? we were supposed to wait a few years to have kids?

I remember people started explaining birth control and we shocked them into golden silence when announced we were going to let God plan our family and we actually wanted as many as He would bless us with!

That was the best decision of our life!  

I remember being “called” into the ministry. When we got married, I didn’t know I’d be a Pastor’s wife.

I admired your passion to serve God, in spite of the fact that your Dad thought you were wasting your education and told you/us we could be earning 4 times as much as we were getting paid, we gladly forged ahead- in agreement- that ministry was the life we wanted to live together! 

We learned what was treasure in our life- and it wasn’t money. Thirty-three years of serving Him beside you has killed me in such a good way. 🙂  Ministry does that you know! I wouldn’t want to go back and do any of it over but I wouldn’t change a thing!

 

[Tweet “If u cling to your #life, u will lose it; but if u give up your life 4 Me, u will find it. #Jesus”]

 

I remember when we chose to home school! (and we won’t even talk about having our home births 😉 ) Another counter cultural thing at the time 🙂

 

It would have been so much easier to do what everyone else was doing

but we wanted to raise our children for God’s glory and were convinced home schooling would facilitate this.

 

Thank you. my Knight, for the times you rescued me; on the days I wanted to pull my hair out, the days I would fight migraines, or my overwhelmed “I don’t know if I can do this days”. 

I know we didn’t do it all “perfectly”, but somehow we muddled our way through with His help and now we have grown children who love and follow God, are well educated, serve others, and have become our best friends in the journey of life! It doesn’t get any better than that!

 

 

 

[Tweet “I have no greater #joy than to see my #children walking in the #truth. #family”]

 

We’ve laughed a lot, cried buckets, dated always and grown together.

We’ve had little and have abounded.

We’ve walked through sickness and health- the valley of death- fears and anxiety- the very testing of our faith!

We’ve walked through the fire of cancer in our child and were catapulted into the land of Special Needs.

We’ve parented and now we’re GRANDparenting- our burning desire to tell the goodness of the Lord from generation to generation.

We’ve raised quite a few eyebrows, babe- but I wouldn’t change a thing.

Well- I would kiss you more and worry less!

[Tweet “Count your #blessings- not your worries. #celebrate #life”]

 

Getting back to the salmon illustration- just to clarify and assure you-

I know the analogy breaks down because salmon swim upstream to spawn and then they die. 

Not us!

We’re ever swimming onward and upwards toward His beautiful River of Life that flows from the very throne of God!

“Together” is still our word.

Now and Forever- living to magnify His name.

Treasure: My husband and best friend~ Jeff

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