One Four Three means I love you! 8.23.23
143 was our favorite number! It means I love you! We used it as our code. We wrote it on every note and card to each other. We would squeeze our hands – one of us would squeeze once and the other would respond with four pumps and then the initiator would finish with three…
6.4.23 Wedding Day Toast of Gratitude
Clayton and Amanda, here we are on your wedding day celebrating! Let me start with a few words of gratitude: Jennifer, thank you for such a godly young woman. You’ve raised her well as a woman of honor and one of many passions and one love. Yes, I prayed for her and for you for…
A Marriage Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, We are grateful for the way your Spirit moves in our lives and directs our every step. Thank you for the ways you have created Clayton and Amanda and brought them together. Thank you for the homes they came from, the love they experienced there, the principles they were taught there, their…
June 3rd , 2023 Thoughts for my Son on the eve of His Wedding
Clayton, soon after your dad died, I started a blog to keep saying all the unspoken things, not leaving my thoughts and feelings stranded in my heart. Our lives are stories, letters and words to others and sometimes by sharing them we grow our love. What would I want to say on such a day…
It’s Wedding Week! What to say about marriage?
There are so many examples and similes of marriage, but today I choose to compare marriage to soccer – the beautiful game! 1. When marriage is new it is like a little kids’ soccer game – it takes a while to realize who your teammates are and which direction you need to go. Little kids…
Vanessa & Drew April 28th
Is life a fairy tale? I am not so sure how to answer this or if there is an answer as it seems complicated, but I do think fairy tales are best when they are true. This one I am about to share is one that is mostly true. Once upon a time there was…
Amanda’s Shower Advice
Dear (Clayton &) Amanda – “What marriage advice would you share?” I always think this is a weird question because it reduces the most important relationship down to a quick response… I don’t like to give such a thin answer to such a weighty subject. Marriage is our most layered and complex of relationships and…
8 Years – Happy Anniversary!
8 years is not so long but it is long enough to need to be reminded that what you signed up for was to serve each other. The best way to happiness in marriage is to keep serving the one you chose 8 years ago! Keep choosing each other. Keep choosing to invest. Choose to…
What I learned from marriage
42 years ago I said “I do”. I was only married for part of my life because Jim joined the great cloud of witnesses after we hit #30. But even though I have been “single” for the last 12 years I do not feel “single”. I still feel my sweet Jim’s presence in so many…
Happy 7th Anniversary
They say that this anniversary is itchy! I am not sure why people seem to think this is the time couples re-evaluate their relationship when statistics show it happens much earlier in the marriage. I am not sure it is a real thing anyway but I would say that every anniversary is an opportunity to…