Husbands and wives "be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ." Ephesians 5:21
This past weekend we celebrated 30 years of marriage. I am so blessed to be married to the man of my dreams. He truly is my treasure on this earth and I am in awe every day of God's will and grace in creating us for one another.
We celebrated, first, by going to the movie theater to watch a matinee of The Chosen, Season 3 Episodes 1 & 2, followed by a late lunch/early supper (I like to call it Lupper), then completed the day by attending Mass in the little church where we received the Holy Sacrament of Marriage. It was a wonderful, Christ-filled day. Our only regret is Father Ernie, our priest and marriage celebrant, wasn't there to administer an anniversary blessing. We lost him to cancer earlier this year. After Mass, Father Balaraju was so kind when we shared it was our 30th. We were expecting a quick prayer but he nearly ran to get the Book of Blessings. He was so heartfelt it gave us both the sniffles as he poured out God's grace on us.
While St. Boniface church has changed very little since our wedding day, we're a little more gray-haired, fluffy, and wrinkled. While we have changed on the outside, our love has evolved, too. It has grown brighter and stronger over the years. We chuckled when recalling our naive 20-something selves, so excited and eager to start a life together. We had such grand plans.
Now, 30 years later, we are less interested in grand plans, content with following where God leads us and being each other's chore, gardening, hiking, and adventure partner. Today, we aspire to be the little old couple everyone loves to see walking arm-in-arm, finishing each other's sentences, and laughing at jokes we've heard hundreds of times over.
At the risk of oversharing, here are a few items I love and appreciate about Kent, my husband of 30 years.
He speaks loudest when he does not say a word at all. This is when I really need to stop and pay attention.
He is wise. Thankfully, I have learned to listen and heed his counsel. It has kept me from making a colossal mistake on more than one occasion.
He really does get me. This includes my dry sense of humor, my love for agriculture and teaching, all my crazy ideas, and even all the pets/livestock we've had.
He sees things I don't. I'm really a big-picture kind of gal while he pays attention to the details.
He keeps me grounded.
He loves to laugh! Oh my goodness, he is so funny!
He knows I'm practical and gets me gifts I will actually use. Example: Estwing hammer with a tuning fork in the handle to absorb shock for my birthday, a hand-held laser level and stud finder for Valentine's Day, and a selfie-stick just-because (he regrets the first day of every vacation when I make him take repeated pictures with me).
He prefers to plan and think through how to do things. I normally just dive in and problem-solve as I go. I've come to appreciate his thoughtfulness, especially when I'm having to tear apart something and redo it because I had more errors than successes with my trial.
He would rather find a way to get the bug/spider out of the house than just stomp it but he hates mice as much as I do.
He is a provider in every sense of the word.
He is the ping to my pong.
He cherishes me.
He completes me.
Thirty years and counting. Thanks be to God.
