GRACE

IF 20 years of marriage could be summed up in one word I would choose "Grace" today as Allan and I celebrate that we have spent 20 years trying to figure out this thing called marriage!

In many ways we are able to celebrate today because of the multiple times we have failed, in big ways and small ways, over the last 2 decades. Equally so for the many times we made a choice to keep loving one another when it was not a feeling but an act of will.

And we did not do this alone.  If we had tried, we would have failed long ago.

I feel like this could turn into a Oscar acceptance-esque speech if I let it, but there are truly so many people over 20 years who have played a part in our story, who were with us when great and fun memories were made, who were with us through big life-changing events and who stood with us through the storms. I made a list last night and it was so long and I am thankful for each of you.

Deeply thankful.

I do want to thank our parents for their own examples of marriage and for loving us through thick and thin. We love you.

To our wonderful children Lindsay and David who are the greatest gifts of our marriage and we are so grateful to have them to love and cherish.

And to my husband, Allan, I said I do then and I would say it again today.  It's been a journey with much love, much laughter, rich experiences, pain and suffering, forgiveness and growth.  I  believe we are both more worthy of each other now than we were then.  I look with hope at the future we have together.

I love you.

To God be the Glory - Great things He has done.


Dancing in the minefields

I was nineteen, you were twenty-one
The year we got engaged
Everyone said we were much too young
But we did it anyway

We bought our rings for forty each
From a pawn shop down the road
We made our vows and took the leap
Now fifteen years ago

We went dancing in the minefields
We went sailing in the storm
And it was harder than we dreamed
But I believe that's what the promise is for

"I do" are the two most famous last words
The beginning of the end
But to lose your life for another I've heard
Is a good place to begin
'Cause the only way to find your life
Is to lay your own life down
And I believe it's an easy price
For the life that we have found

And we're dancing in the minefields
We're sailing in the storm
This is harder than we dreamed
But I believe that's what the promise is for

So when I lose my way, find me
When I loose love's chains, bind me
At the end of all my faith, till the end of all my days
When I forget my name, remind me

'Cause we bear the light of the Son of Man
So there's nothing left to fear
So I'll walk with you in the shadowlands
Till the shadows disappear

'Cause he promised not to leave us
And his promises are true
So in the face of all this chaos, baby,
I can dance with you