Forty-one years ago this evening I married a beautiful young woman of 22 years of age. I, a senior on Christmas break at Wheaton College, could not believe this gorgeous lady would marry me. As I stood at the front of the Wheaton Bible Church watching her come down that long aisle I was simply staggered by God's blessing in my life.
Today we remember all the blessings that were given to us in the years since that wonderful evening of December 26, a cold Saturday night in 1970. We had only truly met (we talked for a few seconds about five months before but we really did not notice each other at all) in May of 1970. We fell in love very fast. I do not recommend it but it was sheeer joy. Our parents were totally supportive and thus we got married rather quickly. If truth be told we hardly knew each other, at least in terms of our respective bad habits and ways of coping emptionally. Our cultures were very different too. I was from the deep South and Anita was a Chicago girl through-and-through. Oddly, both our dads were dentists who both graduated from Northwestern Dental School. (They had never met since they were there at different times.)
Our love has grown over these forty-one years. We have faced challenges, as all couples do over time. But one thing I am sure about today more than ever. I made a good choice. (I think Anita would agree!) It would be better to say that God kindly directed me to a woman who was loyal, loving and so much fun to be around. She was gorgeous to me when we first talked warmly, and with real interest, in May of 1970. She is, and I am not making this up, more gorgeous to me now than she was then. She ages well, loves me much better each year and supports me like no one else in my life. And no one watches my back side, and my front side for that matter, like Anita. She can see through people like I cannot. She warns me about people who will hurt me and I am learning to listen better with time. She even tells me how to drive but I listen less to this counsel. Surprised?
God bless you my precious wife of 41 years!!!
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