Our Thirty-fifth Wedding Anniversary

Our First Sunday at LMBC (12/05/82)

Mary and I celebrate our thirty-fifth wedding anniversary today, August 13, 2011. It seems like just yesterday that I was waiting for her to step through the back door of our church to walk down the isle to become my wife. She was (and still is) the most beautiful bride I have ever seen!! In the middle of the ceremony we turned to the congregation and together we sang, "To Be Used of God," which was (and is) the testimony of our lives. I know that sounds archaic and/or romantically lacking to some, but it sure beats a lot of the overtly secular ideas that are used in weddings today. Our overwhelming desire was to honor God and to show others that we lived for a higher purpose than our own selfish ambitions. Make no mistake about it, it was an incredibly romantic ceremony, but we were careful that ALL we did honored God and reflected our high view of Him.

To my sweet wife of thirty-five years...thank you for sharing your life with me so selflessly and with such passion. There is not, nor will there ever be a woman I'd rather spend the remainder of my life sharing the joys of marriage. You are a gift from God that displays His matchless grace to me and without you in my life I simply would not be complete. You are beautiful, talented, filled with life and the most wonderful spiritual partner I could have on this journey of life. If we can spend seventy years together loving one another and loving our God it will still be too short a time for me. I sometimes get really busy caring for others in the work that we do, but I will never let any other person stand in the way of my caring for you! Aside from our Lord Himself, there is no one that I think about or want to spend more time with...THAN YOU!! I pray that God will give us thirty-five more years to share our lives as "one." And, I've asked Him that when the day comes for us to leave this world to take our trip to Heaven's shore that He will let us go together so we will never have to be apart. You are the love of my life and my gift from God above.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, SWEET DARLING!!! I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART!!


"He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love." (Song of Solomon 2:4)