This weekend we had the amazing opportunity to celebrate my parents 40th wedding anniversary. Their story is amazing, and has God woven through it. I can’t tell you that things were always pretty, and I certainly can’t tell you that they were always happy, or gushing with each other. But I can tell you that, when things were hard they didn’t give up. When finances were bad they worked harder, when dad was deployed mom held it together. When kids were sick they figured it out.
As the oldest of six kids, I was witness to so much of my parents story. They had me a year after they got married, and very quickly added 3 more children right behind me LOL. Those early years were years when my dad was deployed ALOT. Those years were years when my mom bought and sold vehicles, houses, enrolled us in schools, in churches, in sports, in everything alone. My dad would come home and we would have those few moments all together, and then he would be deployed again.
When I was 10 and living in Germany during Dessert Storm, my mom became pregnant with twins. Her pregnancy was very difficult and she ended up delivering them very early. My father was told that my mother most likely wouldn’t survive, and if she did she would need a heart transplant soon….
Fast forward to now nearly 30 years later, through my dad’s retirement from the military, to him going to school to become a pharmacist, to so many family crisis…. sick children, grandchildren, dad having numerous medical issues including heart attacks, quadruple bypass, hip replacements etc….. through it all they have stayed true to the vows they made to each other in front of God and all of their family and friends.
In this current world we live in so many people don’t stick with something if it is hard, they give up, they quit. They just don’t want to do it any more. My parents? They have been through so much, I can’t even begin to explain to you all that they have been through. There has been fighting and anger, hurt and fear. But there has been so much love, and even more laughter. I think the lives they have led, the example they have set for us is truly incredible. I will be honest, sometimes I look at my life and I ask God so many questions about where we are at and what we are going through, and if we weren’t in His will and if that is the reason why we are struggling. And I hear His still small voice, encouraging me to keep on going, to keep the faith, to keep praying and believing. The testimony that my parents have, is the one I want to have. The testimony of God bringing us through all the struggles of life. The testimony of a marriage that has stood the test of this crazy world we live in. This world, the devil, it seems to attack on every front possible. It makes every attempt to discourage and break you. But God! God can move any obstacle, God can tear down any mountain, God can heal the broken, heal the sick, give joy that makes no sense to this world.
Beautifully Blessed 