Our anniversary: ​​The celebration continues

On March 18th we celebrated our 52nd anniversary. And to that we say, HELLO GOD!!! He deserves all the glory! We would not be celebrating if it were not for His mercy, grace and guidance.

Because of Him the celebration continues to this day. We said, “I do” all those years ago. and we still say, “I do” to this day, and every day that we are gifted.

We happily celebrate a life well lived together. It was and IS quite a journey. And with prayer, if the Lord allows it, we will have many more years together, to live and above all, to love.

The Celebration Continues

As Steve and I look back and reflect, we sure have learned a LOT! One of the biggest things we learned is to disciple each other and disciple marriage lived God’s way instead of our preconceived ideas of what marriage should be (which almost led to our divorce .)

And yet, even though we’ve learned A LOT, we still don’t have a “perfect” marriage. (Actually, I’m not sure what “perfect” might look like when two sinners meet.) But I can tell you that we have lived our lives well. It’s not just what you experienced, but what you learned from it that matters. And we learned through A LOT!

With that said, Steve and I decided to share with you a few things we learned. We hope you will find them useful. Steve says, “ladies first” so here we go.

In the article, How to enjoy a lifelong love affair with your spouse, Whitney Hopler gave 2 great points (among many) that summarize what we learned and apply to our own marriage. One of them is:

Move beyond the small story to the bigger story.

Recognize that your marriage is about much more than a little story that you share your life with your spouse. This is a much bigger story of the great work God wants to do through the two of you in your marriage. Your marriage is a covenant relationship. It is something that can show everyone who knows you what God’s love looks like in action.

When Steve and I realized this important point about marriage, our entire relationship and the way we treated each other began to change, in a positive way. This thing called marriage is not so much about us. It is about God and HIS story. This is the story God wants to write through us about how we live our lives together. we have to be “imitators of God, as beloved children and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us.(Ephesians 5:1) This is our constant goal. Let us never forget this!

Here’s another point Whitney makes that God also showed us, and our marriage was never the same (in a GREAT but challenging way):

Pursue God’s dream for your marriage.

God’s big dream for your marriage is to reflect you and your spouse’s relationship with Jesus. He wants you to show the people around you how true love and commitment should work. When it does, your wedding will have great power to inspire people. And it will bring them closer to God. So see your marriage from God’s perspective: as a gift that can bless not only you and your spouse, but others as well.

Again, this is an ongoing goal and prayer for Steve and myself. We pray that our lives will reflect and reveal the heart of Christ in everything we do, especially in our marriage.

It’s also one of the reasons Wedding Quests were created. It is to share God’s “bigger story” with others about marriage. And it is to “inspire people and bring them closer to God”. It is our prayer that as others see us, they will see Christ and want to know our God better.

Some see it differently

Yes, we know, there are some who have the opposite reaction. (We get their emails and comments; some of them are pretty nasty.) But that was and is about Christ and how people receive what he said to them. So we try not to take it personally. We are in BIG company! But the vast majority of responses are so positive. God works through ordinary people in ways that we can only stand back and say, “this is really AMAZING!!!” Thank you my God!

Here’s what Steve wants to share with you about what he’s learned about marriage.

STEPHANOS:

The biggest lesson I’ve learned in our marriage is that marriage is for “adults”. I know this should be obvious, but it wasn’t for me. and it’s not for many people. For many years of our married life I acted like a teenager. I was a selfish, self-centered, “marriage is all about me” husband. It’s not like I never “gave” into our marriage. But I was definitely more interested in what I could “get” out of the relationship.

Now, I can’t tell you the day I had an epiphany. But I finally woke up and saw that I wasn’t showing love to Cindy.”as Christ loved it Church and gave himself up for her.“This is God’s commandment to husbands. and i forgot about it. After waking up to my sin, I asked God to show me how to give love to Cindy as “Christ loved the church.Fortunately, she began to reveal to me various ways in which I could show or “be Jesus” to her. It was a very rewarding trip.

The celebration continues as God teaches how to love

Over time, I came to truly love Cindy as my wife, partner, best friend, and lover. I thank God many times every day that she is my wife. She is the woman he wants me to love like he does. It is also my goal to “over-serve” her every day. In other words, I want to make our marriage more of a giver than a taker.

I cannot begin to tell you how glad I am to have had this awakening. Our marriage is now so full and rich! I am also thankful that I obeyed God’s call on my life as her husband. If I hadn’t, I would have missed His “best” for me (and for us) in our marriage. Wives, I pray you reach this point in your marriage too!

Oh, and if you want some great tips for celebrating your anniversary, below is a fun article we recommend you read. Scott Kedersha gives some great tips to keep the celebration going at your wedding. We encourage you to pray, read, gather, and see what you can adapt for your wedding:

• 30 UNIQUE WAYS TO CELEBRATE YOUR ANNIVERSARY

That’s what we did. And it was fun and so meaningful!

Closing

One of our friends sent us a very important anniversary card and the following scripture was highlighted in it. It is SO appropriate as we celebrate our wedding:

“Now these three remain: faith, hope and love – the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)

To this we say, Yes, Lord! Let us never forget! And always remember this, too.

So as we head into the week to celebrate and love each other more and more, this comes to mind:

“I will sing the praise of the Lord, for he has dealt well with me.” (Psalm 13:6)

Yes, he was good to us, so very, very good—in hard times and in fun times.

We pray this will be your experience in your marriage as you lean into the Lord and closer to each other. May the celebration continue!

Cindy and Steve Wright

– ADDITIONALLY –

To help you further, we give many personal stories, humor and more practical advice in our book, 7 ESSENTIALS to grow your marriage. We hope you’ll pick up a copy for yourself. (It’s available both online and in print.) Plus, it makes a great gift for someone else. It gives you an opportunity to help them grow their marriage. And who doesn’t need that? Just click on the linked title or image below:

ALSO:

If you are not a subscriber to Marriage Insights (emailed weekly)
and want to get them directly, please click below:

Print post