10 years

Wow! Yesterday Marty and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. To say the time has flown would be a gross understatement. We actually celebrated with a night out the night before, so on our actual anniversary we opened our time capsule that we created on our wedding. On our actual wedding we decided that we would open it on our tenth anniversary. Some may wait longer but we had decided that was the longest we wanted to wait. Maybe we will create one now to be opened on our 25th! Anyway . . . . we watched our wedding video with the kids last night. Oh my gosh . . . it was such a hoot. Our wedding video starts off with a slide show of us as babies all the way through our courtship. The kids thought it was a riot to see how much they look like us as when we were little. The comments that followed the actual ceremony were hilarious. Emma: Mommy, rewind to the part where you were a princess. Reese: Emma, I am going to be the groom and you have to be a bride. You get to walk on that fancy rug. Reese: When do I get to be a ring master (ring bearer)? Reese: Why is everyone crying? (Marty tried to explain the difference between joyous crying and sad crying.) Then we put the kids to bed and watched the rest just the two of us. Marty and I were both Christians when we married but there were a lot of unbelievers in our family. Both Marty and I asked our paster, Quint, if he would incorporate a message of God's love and promise of salvation in our ceremony. He did an amazing job. He also left us a printed copy of his message that we put in our time capsule. I think this message is worth hearing over and over no matter how long you have been married. Here was his message: "What a beautiful moment this is. This is one of those once in a lifetime experiences. I wish I could put it in a bottle for you. All the feelings, sights, sounds, smells. I wish I could bottle it all up for you and you could take it home. Most of your days together will be far more routine, far more mundane. It is easy to demonstrate our love for one another on days like this. These feelings, these sights, sounds--they bring out the romantic in us all. The test for our relationship will be your ability to demonstrate your love for one another during the ordinary days and even on the ugly days. Sometimes its as routine as stopping at the store to pick up a gallon of milk or surrendering the TV remote. Sometimes its as big as sacrificing a lifelong goal or ambition for the benefit of your marriage. The Bible says that your marriage is an image of God's love for us. This relationship that you share is a picture-story of Christ's love for His church. You know God has demonstrated His love for us in many ways. We see His love in the beauty of a sunset. He shows His love in the vastness of a starry sky, in the gorgeous vista of a mountain top. When I experience these gifts from Him I think I want to bottle this up. What I'm feeling, seeing, hearing. But I don't always get to see the sunset. Often clouds obstruct the stars. My visits to the mountaintop are less frequent these days. But God has demonstrated His love to me in one inescapable venue. There was nothing pretty about it. It was ugly. But when Jesus hung on that ugly, twisted cross . . . sacrificing, committing himself totally, that demonstrated all the love I need. Marty and Gwen have asked me to remind you today of how much God loves you. I don't know what you think of God. Maybe you think of Him as distant and aloof, minding His business as you mind yours. Maybe you think of Him as an angry tyrant, wanting to dish out punishment to those who offend Him. Marty and Gwen want you to know that God loves you more today than they love one another. As they are pledging their love and commitment to one another, God has already pledged His love and commitment to you. You can respond to His love today and embrace Christ as your Savior" It was such a beautiful message. Thank you Quint Pitts! Now I look back on this message after 10 years of loving sacrifice. I sacrificed my dream job in TN to make a home in WV because I knew that's what Marty wanted. Marty sacrificed a house on a farm because I insisted on living in a neighborhood. I have sacrificed many a weekend for Marty to be at the farm. Marty sacrifices every Sat morning in the summer so that I can train for a half marathon. We have made more sacrifices for each other than I could have even anticipated on that day in July when I was 24. Some sacrifices are more easily made then others. Some we don't give a second thought. We make them because we dearly love each other and we know that is God's will for us. First to pray over what sacrifices are to be made and then make them with a loving spirit. None of these sacrifices however could compare to God's sacrifice of His son for us. Sometimes I have a hard time wrapping my head around that kind of love. Truly sacrificial, unending, unconditional love. Love that cares what I'm doing every single second of the day. Love that cares when I shed a tear. Love that celebrates my little and big victories. Thank you Marty for 10 wonderful years and Thank you God for your ultimate life-altering sacrificial love.