13 Years and Still Going Strong

It's hard to look back and not find something that doesn't bring a smile to my face when I think of the man who came into my life almost 16 years ago and asked me to be his wife, 3 years into being my best friend.

Yes, today we are celebrating "Lucky" number 13 of our anniversary! Even though each month on the 9th we still try to be the first one to say Happy Anniversary for every month. Today, Steve won at some point in the wee hours of the morning while it was still yet dark.

Yet we both are winners in marriage when today's society calls for divorce as easily as it is for people to quit jobs or drop classes in school when the going gets tough. We have had our ups and downs, even though Steve confessed its' been 13 wonderful years, I had to admit to him, it hasn't always been wonderful but there is still no person I would want to fight with more than him and walk through the rest of my time serving God here on Earth with.

I can rest in God's assurance that I will have an eternity with him and we will celebrate our time spent here on Earth with every other Christian. To me, besides God, there isn't a better person who knows all my quirks, moods, and deepest secrets and yet still remains the person I want to see at the end of the day and first thing in the mornings. He is all that and a bag of chips!

I don't want to give you the idea that any marriage is gumdrops and rainbows, but with God's help and a strong sense of our spiritual ideas and beliefs, we can weather any storm. It's through conflicts in our marriage that we can see the greatest growth. Some years we've grown so much more than others but in the end, God has the best plan in place when after a rough divorce, he presented me with the greatest gift in holding on to Him and my faith in God.

Steve is that gift, and like the Bible promises, what the enemy intends for our harm, God will use for good. God turned my divorce into a promise of a new beginning and in that has rewarded me for my perseverance in Him. Steve has stood by me as our boat has sailed through calm waters, rough storms and even a few hurricanes, but we look to our greatest source of navigation and see that God knows how this will turn out.

When I asked Steve what his greatest memory has been of our time together, he said it was waking up every morning, or almost every morning, with me. Life in my opinion can only get better as each day goes by.

Happy Anniversary to the Best Gift God could have blessed me with. I love you Steve!