Celebrating our 40th Wedding Anniversary ♡

 "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother

and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."

~ Genesis 2:24 ~

♡

One man and one woman in a lifetime commitment.

God never intended for man to be alone ~

"And the Lord God said, "It is not good that man should be alone;

I will make him a help meet for him."

~ Genesis 2:18 ~

The very bone from which woman was crafted came from man.

"And Adam said, 

This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: 

she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

~ Genesis 2:23 ~

Woman was taken out of Man, then presented to man in order to complete him.

We were created in the image of God with physical and emotional needs

that only another human being could meet.

It is not good that man should be alone.

♡ ♡ ♡ ☆ ☆ ♡ ♡ ♡

42 years ago on the ski slopes of Vail Colorado

where I was a chair lift operator and my husband was visiting from Canada

we met...and fell in love. 

We believe it was the hand of God that brought us together,

and for 40 years He has kept us together.

We had a long distance relationship for two years before we married

which involved a lot of letter writing, and believe me, 

there was A LOT of snail mail sent both ways. 

Back then there were no cell phones and using a land line was quite costly.

If we phoned at the wrong time of the day it could cost as much as $1.00 a minute.

My husband remembers paying a $120.00 phone bill one time, 

 that was a lot of money back then. Ouch!

For myself, saving up for a long phone call was well worth it,

I was in love. 😍

♡ ♡ ♡ ☆ ☆ ♡ ♡ ♡

A while back I was reading some of A. W. Tozer's collections

and in his book "The Purpose of Man" he spoke on

 "The absolute worth-ship of Christ", he was writing about

"The Lord of All and His Bride."

"Our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world that He might

save us from the ugliness of sin to a beautiful heaven. "

How beautiful are those words A. W. Tozer penned!

"The old Testament gives us the story of a man named Isaac.

His father, Abraham, called for his servant to go find an

acceptable bride for his son (see Genesis 24). 

With the help of the Holy Spirit, that old servant went down into the town Abraham indicated and found a young woman there. 

The Bible pictures her as being very beautiful. 

Her name was Rebekkah and she must have been beautiful, 

because the servant was instructed to find a 

bride that was beautiful to look upon. 

Isaac is a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

God the Father sent the Holy Spirit out among the 

people of the world to win a bride for Christ, 

one that was worthy of Him. "

One that was worthy of Him!

What a beautiful picture.

Those words actually took my breath away as I read them,

one that is worthy of Him, sigh...

As a wife, I am constantly asking myself, am I worthy?

Am I honoring the man God has blessed me with?

Am I the help meet God desires of me to be

each and every day of our lives together?

Daily in great humility I bow before the throne of God,

seeking His face as a wife, for I long for nothing else but Thee

as I strive to be first, worthy of God, then worthy of my husband.

Without God in my life, it would be extremely difficult

to be the wife I so desire to be. 

It is only by the grace of God that I am who I am.  

"The bride's significance was to rest in the groom.

She has no worth of her own, but her worth lies in her

relationship to the groom. Jesus Christ is the groom

and is worthy of our love, adoration and joyful worship.

Rebekkah was merely the daughter of her father.

But, when she was taken to Isaac, she took on a new identity-the identity

of her groom."

A picture we all know that comes with marriage,

the taking of our husband's name, such an honor to him!

Our identity is now in our groom.

"Our identity is now in our Groom. The past identity is now forgotten, 

with all its obligations. Our Groom is now our identity, 

and nothing in our past matters anymore. 

The bride not only takes on the identity of the  groom 

but also his name as well. She is now forever known by that name. 

The Groom Shepherd is worthy of our affection

and is deserving of us leaving everything and 

embracing Him as our own."

I found this to be such a beautiful picture, both in my 

marriage to my wonderful husband

and in the marriage of Christ and his bride. 

This isn't a new story to me ~ but knowing that our Wedding  Anniversary

was just around the corner it found its way into my heart

and touched those heart strings in a very special way. 

If I were to say it's been 40 wonderful years of BLISS I would be lying to you, 

and to God. 

But I can say,  that these past 40 years have been beautiful

because God has been there orchestrating the both of us

in our lives together as husband and wife. 
As Christ-followers, by faith we press forward in our daily lives together
knowing God will lead and guide us,
and by faith we believe He will never leave nor abandon us.

My husband is a steady man who loves the Lord, and because of his love for the Lord 
he is a wonderful husband whom I am honored to love and respect

until death do us part. 

♡♡

"But she that is married careth for the things of the world,
how she may please her husband."
~ 1 Corinthians 7:34 ~

Take Joy!
Debbie

Wishing you all a blessed Easter Resurrection Sunday,
as you celebrate the victory that has been won
through our loving Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Hallelujah ~ what a Savior!