House Upon A Rock

The doors swung open. The music started to play and the congregation rose to their feet. I started to walk forward. I glanced to the right and into the eyes of the man who holds the honor of holding me first. My gaze shifted to the left, to another wonderful man who had entered my life a bit later, making the life of my mom and I complete. I linked my arms in theirs and proceeded forward. As I walked, my gaze met his. He was tall and handsome. He was waiting for me, just as I had been waiting for him. In a single moment, two great men who loved me dearly entrusted me to another man.

Remember to remember. Those were the words I kept repeating in my mind throughout the ceremony. Someone close had shared them with me (and it seemed like an odd thing to say), but in that moment I understood: Soak it in! So much had led up to this day: preparation, anticipation and pure excitement. This day would come and go, just like any other day. It wouldn't last forever. In the years to come it's clarity would fade. I stared at his sunburned face and smiled. I would always remember that sunburn. There was no doubt about it.

The candles were finally lit, even with the air conditioner blowing strong. I heard giggles. Maybe four little girls were too many, but I couldn't bear to leave anyone out! We knelled. We took communion. We were giving our marriage to Him. As we kneeled, whispering to one another, the sweetest voice sung in the background. The song itself was not anything extraordinary, just a simple prayer about what we hoped our marriage would be....

Household of Faith by Steve Green

Here we are at the start committing to each other
By His word and from our hearts
We will be a family in a house that will be a home
And with faith we'll build it strong

We'll build a household of faith
That together we can make
And when the strong winds blow it won't fall down
As one in Him we'll grow and the whole world will know
We are a household of faith

Now to be a family we've got to love each other
At any cost unselfishly
And our home must be a place that fully abounds with grace
A reflection of His face

On July 24, 2010, we celebrated eleven years of marriage. We have shared tears of joy and those of sorrow. We have fought and we have kissed. Most importantly, we have built a house upon a rock....the rock of Christ. He is the center of our marriage.

Marriage is not easy and I often think of ours as a series of books. The number of books in the series is dependent on how hard we are willing to work at it. Some volumes will be full of love and excitement while others will be full of trials and tribulations. At the end they read something like, "....too be continued" rather than "....happily ever after." That is not a bad thing, it just means we are living in reality.

The book entitled "Dylan" was an essential volume in our series. Shortly after his birth, the same person who told me "Remember to remember" also told me that Dylan would "make or break" our marriage. I thought that was a horrific thing to tell a mother at the time, but as the years have passed, the truth has revealed itself. Marriage is hard. It takes effort - daily - to ensure its existence. Some days are easier than others. Add a special-needs child into the mix and everything magnifies itself.

We are not perfect, but we have kept faith in our heavenly father, the base of our marriage. When we do begin to trip and fall and wonder what's going on, we realize we were not turning to Him first. We have faced strong winds and even some hurricanes, but our home is weathering the storm. There are some loose nails and the paint needs to be touched up now and then, but we make repairs when we see these things happening. We get on our knees and pray. We open the word ask Him to show us what to do and how to do it. Some things are done quickly with just a few quick swings of a hammer, other things need to be stripped, sanded down and refinished.

Our house enjoys the summer breeze but we also know that more winds will come - and go. During breezy times we store up on supplies so that we can face the storms that await us. We enjoy still, blue skies and when we see the clouds forming, we know our house is built upon a rock. If we're keeping our foundation up to date, our house will stand the test of time.