Happy Anniversary!

Today is our wedding anniversary. Rhonda and I have been married for 23 years. Clearly Rhonda hasn’t changed that much through these years. It is also obvious that I was only about fifteen years old when we got married.

We met at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene. We were around each other but didn’t start dating until the Fall of 1983. The first time I asked Rhonda out…at church on a Wednesday night (what a great girl for a young guy who felt called to ministry…as a college student she was in church on a Wednesday night…she could also sing and play the piano) she said “yes” and then called back to say “no.” It took another month but I wore her down.

I while back Rhonda grabbed on to one of those teachable moments with our kids. It was all about dating and choosing someone to spend your life with. Rhonda waxed eloquent regarding the process she followed when dating. As a teenager she wrote down the qualities she was looking for in a husband and stood her ground until God led us together and she found those things she had set as standards (people have told her since she should have had much higher standards). The kids asked me, “How did you choose Mom? What attracted you to her?” I told them it was because she was hot. As it turns out…I’m not a very good parent.

We were married at First Baptist Church in Beeville, Texas. It was Rhonda’s hometown. Her father was the long-time minister of music at First Beeville. On a clear, cool Saturday afternoon in South Texas in 1985, we stood before a pastor on the platform of that church and committed our lives to each other before God, family, and friends.

There are plenty of choices I have made in my life. That is a choice I have never regretted. I said, “I do” and on this day…twenty-three years later… “I still do.” She is my wife and I love her more than ever. We are in this thing together. Being married to me takes a special portion of grace. Rhonda carries this burden well. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY RHONDA!