16 Reflections on 16 Years of Marriage
Today, Naomi and I celebrate sixteen years of married life. In honor of the occasion, here are sixteen reflections on our life together.
- 16 years is a long time to be married. Many of my friends from high school and college didn’t make it that long before succumbing to divorce. One friend from college lost his wife to cancer. I’m blessed to have spent such a large part of my life in partnership with one woman.
- 16 years isn’t a long time to be married. I think of John and Hannah Roduner (Naomi’s grandparents) and of John and Edith Moody (my own grandparents). Though all four of them are in heaven now, their marriages endured (over 100 years between the two marriages). They made it – and they set an example for us to emulate.
- While living in South Florida, we had the privilege of knowing Frank and Joyce Phillips, an older couple who married late in life. They shared with us the idea that if you assume that the year of marriage ahead of you is “the one everyone struggles with”, you’ll be ready for the trials when they come. So I’m watching our for year 17 – I hear it’s a doozy!
- Married people really do grow more alike as time goes on. Case in point: Naomi will now (sometimes) watch football with me, and I now eat squash.
- I married a babe. Just sayin’.
- One of the great joys of life together is the accumulation of shared stories, “inside” jokes and shared vocabulary that no one else will ever understand. Ask Naomi about the “sugar cookies” incident sometime for an example.
- When we were newly married, we decided that we needed pet nicknames for each other. So I was christened “pain in my butt” and Naomi was “thorn in my flesh”. (Sounds better than “smoochy-poo”, right?)
- When you’re married, you end up having to forgive your spouse for the same failings over and over. This is easier to do when I remember how often God has had to do that for me. (Although Naomi has to deal with this a lot more than I do, truthfully.)
- Being married to your best friend – your honest-to-God best friend in the world – is a glorious thing.
- I still remember the lump that came into my throat when I saw Naomi walking down the aisle on our wedding day.
- As beautiful as Naomi was on our wedding day (and trust me, she was gorgeous!), she was 100 times more beautiful lying on an operating table, wearing one of those hair caps they make you wear in operating rooms, looking up at me as I’m holding our firstborn daughter for the first time after 31 hours and a cesarean delivery.
- There’s nothing like married life to show you just how selfish you are.
- I am supposed to love Naomi like Jesus loved the church. The tenses there are important – I am supposed to love (present tense – meaning a continual action) like Jesus loved (aorist tense – a past, point-in-time action) the church and gave himself up for her(also aorist). In other words, Jesus died for the church, and I’m supposed to die daily for my wife. I’m not there yet – not even close.
- Did I mention that I married a serious hot babe? I did? Oh well – it’s worth repeating.
- I am totally unworthy to be married to this woman. Like pretty much all of God’s blessings to me, being married to Naomi is a gift of sheer grace. I thank the God who created her, who brought us together, and who has sustained our marriage all these years.
- Naomi, I want to grow old with you. You game?
August 06 2010 07:51 pm | Uncategorized
Julie on 06 Aug 2010 at 9:33 pm #
OMG! Love is so grand when done God’s way! BTW, I know it’s hard to believe, but it DOES just keep getting better! Best wishes to you and yours.