Remembering the Past 38 Years

Today, Darrel and I celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary.

Can that be possible??? It doesn't seem that it could, but it is. In this picture above, our wedding picture, the year is 1971 and I am 18 and Darrel is 17. I bought my "wedding dress" at a department store and if I remember correctly, it was under 20dollars. We were married right where we are standing in this picture, in my mother-in-laws living room. My two best (and only) friends who had also moved down south from up north, were there, as well as my sister-in-law and her boyfriend and Darrel's parents. That was it, of course, except for the Baptist pastor who married us. Our wedding cake Darrel's mom bought at the local Piggly Wiggly store. It was a small german chocolate cake as that was all they had.

You can't see it, but under Darrel's shirt on the right arm, he is all bandaged.(which is why he's holding it sort of funny) Two days before we were to be married, he was taking a radiator cap off of a car at the gas station he was working at and he didn't let the steam out enough and it blew up on him. Needless to say, he got 1st and 2nd degree burns down his arm and back. Every time he moved, all you heard was....OWWWWWWW!

When we left his mom's house, I remember her running back and saying, WAIT!!! She ran back and grabbed a small box of Minute Rice from the cabinet and everyone got a small handful to throw at us as we got into our 64 Volkswagen and headed for the local motel. We had one night as I had to be at work the next morning. Darrel was off because he had been burned.

38 years........from those simple and extremely humble beginnings, we began our life together. We did not know Christ in those years. THAT is my biggest regret in life, that I did not know HIM and live for HIM in those early married years. A lot would have and could have been different, but that is water under the bridge now.

Thanks be to God, in 1978, Darrel gave his life to Jesus. I followed in January or February of 1979. It is THEN, that our lives together truly began. I don't think either of us really fully understood what we had done, but our lives began, slowly, very slowly, to take a new shape.

Today, I am most graciously thankful to God Almighty, for being the catalyst that has kept this selfish man and woman together. Without Him, we would have been another divorce statistic along with all our other friends from that time in our life who are now divorced.

"Father, you have given so much more to this lowly Chicago girl than I have ever deserved........I thank you for our sons DJ and Butch and our daughter Summer and for all of our grandchildren, who daily bless our hearts and enrich our lives. I thank You for Your great love towards us and for teaching us STILL TO THIS DAY how to love one another like You'd have us to. Thank You for all You have provided for us for all these years. I thank You for every breath I breathe and I thank You for all you have in store for us in the years to come, how ever many more you should give us on this earth together. You have blessed us Lord and we are humbled by your grace and mercy. For the past 38 years of marriage, we thank You Lord God and we give praise, honor and glory to Your precious name for all You have done for us."

REMEMBERING THE PAST 38 YEARS today has been sweet. Oh yeah Lord....and I'm grateful that my memory is still good enough that I CAN remember the past 38 years!