I got up this morning to go about my usual morning routine, read and study my Bible, eat breakfast. Typical morning, except it isn’t really a typical morning. Fifty-five years ago, on this date at 3 PM PDT, I married my sweetheart.
I first met him when he was 20 and I was 13. I was babysitting for the sons of my parents’ best friends, the Garcia’s. He showed up in his Marine Corps dress blues to take their daughter, to whom he was engaged, to her high school graduation. He sure was handsome in those dress blues! (Oh, he never did marry the Garcia’s daughter.}
I didn’t see him again for 6 years. By then he was out of the service, working in construction and owned his own house. He had called the Garcia’s and asked if they knew a good Catholic girl he could ask out for a date. They gave him my phone number.
He often teased me that he married the babysitter, and I guess he did. He also informed me (still does) that he’s “the best thing that ever happened to me.” I remind him that the only reason he “turned out as good as he did is because he married me.”
If someone asks me how we made it to 55 years, my only answer—by the grace of God. We are two strong, opinionated people. We each had a load of baggage we brought to this marriage. His father was an alcoholic; his mother abused. My mother was mentally ill; my father angry. Taking that kind of stuff and trying to make a new home was difficult. We had to work at it. (Even when we didn’t want to!) By the grace of God.
We raised three children. We fought. We made up. We dug our heels in at times and refused to change. Other times, we surrendered and learned to grow. We made 55 years. We are still two strong, opinionated people. And sometimes even now it is only by the grace of God.
But then, living by the grace of God is not a bad way to live. Hebrews reminds us, “It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace.” [13:9 NIV]
Father, thank you for Your grace. Thank you for the strength of heart to make 55 years, to mature, to grow, to love when there were times we didn’t even like each other. It is only by Your grace. Amen.