9th May 2016.
The 9th May always strikes a happy note in my heart. It’s the day I got engaged. Crazy that that was 30 years ago today.
I’ve been wearing the ring for 3 decades. It still fits. The gold has worn away a bit and the clasps probably need some reinforcement, but it pretty much hasn’t changed.
The hands are a whole lot older!
I love to celebrate these days. They are days of remembrance. Engaged for 30 years! Mike always laughs at me. For him counting is usually related to waiting. He counted how long before he retired. He tells me the moment I arrived on the scene his term of imprisonment in the jail of singleness was over. He was free. He stopped counting. 1 year, 15 years, 18, 20 26, 30. It makes no difference, he says, it’s all happiness and freedom!
Besides, I guess, the formal agreement to get married ended when we did. When I got the wedding band (which I took off today, so I could enjoy the warm fuzzy “I’m engaged” feeling) the agreement was sealed.
I am grateful and appreciative that I could hang out with the same guy for 30 years, marry him and have the Lord sustain us for all this time. What a blessing. Our wedding was exactly 3 months after our engagement. We went into wedding preparation overdrive and got married on 9th August 1986.
As Mike and I were talking the other day about our marriage, we concluded that the longer we have been together, the more alike we have become. When we first married, we were so very different that it was very noticeable. I am sure somewhere along the line, I have listed all our differences. But as the years have passed, we seem to have blended. The other thing that has happened over the last many years is that we have become more patient and accepting of one another. We’ve learned to keep our mouths shut and allowed each other more freedom to do what we want to do. We have learned to serve the other. These things make all the difference to our happiness.
And so while Mike lets the day pass by and will go hit golf balls just now, I look admiringly at my engagement ring, enjoying the fuzzy feeling that I have it at all. And it’s okay. Both of us are right.
Each day is to be celebrated and appreciated.
Because these are the days.
Psalm 106:13
“But they soon forgot what He had done and did not wait for His counsel.”
The people of God quickly forgot what God had done for them and they did their own thing.
Let’s not.
God has been so faithful. Engaged, married, single, widowed, divorced, don’t forget what He has done and always wait for His counsel.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you!
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂