Thirty Six Happy Years

On June 19th, my wife, Linda, and I celebrated our 36th Wedding Anniversary. My, how time flies when you're having fun! Tomorrow afternoon we are off to the mountains of Pocahontas County, WV, on vacation with our son, Benji and his family and his in-laws, the Clantons.
We are looking forward to a quiet few days in a big two-story farmhouse on banks of the Greenbrier River.

I have been out of the office a lot in the past two and a half years, for surgeries, chemotherapy treatments, CT scans and other related doctor appointments, but it has been no “vacation”! There is much more to ministry work than just preaching a sermon on Sunday and doing a couple of other services a week. It can be absolutely grueling for a pastor and his wife. Pastors need vacations too. A wise teacher once told me, "If you do not take time to 'come apart', you are certain to eventually COME APART!" How true that is. This week of time off is especially needed by both Linda and myself, and will be a wonderful time of relaxation and reflection.

I hope to play a little golf and maybe go to see the 4th of July Fireworks at the Snowshoe Ski Resort. I'll take some walks with Will and Asher down the Greenbriar trail and probably wade in the river with them. However, mostly I just plan to sit on the front porch admiring God’s handiwork in the beautifully forested mountains and listening to the sounds of the water flowing swiftly over the rocky riverbed. We will enjoy the fellowship of family and friends, as well as the delicious meals, cooked on the old fashioned wood burning stove. As an added bonus, we will have two of the grandsons to delight us with their presence. The other two, Quint and Canon, from New Orleans were able to be home with us on our anniversary last month. We had a great time with them then. (You can see the photos of all four of them here on the home page of this blog). Truly God has been so good to us!

My mind still goes back 38 years to the night I first met Linda. Do you believe in love at first sight?

I do! It happened to me.

It was the week before my 19th birthday that I first laid eyes on Linda in a revival service at my home church. Cupid’s arrow struck me squarely in the heart and I came down with a terminal case of the “can’t help its”. My focus in life for the next 20 months was to make that beautiful, fascinating girl from Pike County, KY my wife. I chased her until she finally broke down, and on June 19, 1971 my dream came true. Next to receiving Christ as my Savior, our marriage is the most important thing that has happened to me in my life.

It seems as though the past 36 years have swept by as swiftly as the waters of the Greenbrier. The U.S. Air Force, various jobs, and pastoral ministry have taken us to live in six states, from West Virginia to Louisiana, and from Lake Superior in upper Michigan to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We have served churches in West Virginia and Kentucky, and back to West Virginia again. The years have not always been easy and we have had some pretty rough spots along the way. Haven’t we all? But through it all, quitting was never an option. We were in a covenant relationship and we had promised, “For richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part.”

Through it all, God has blessed us with two fine sons. Jay is a pastor in the New Orleans area and earned his Master of Divinity Degree in Biblical Languages this past May from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Benji is a graduate of Morehead State University, and is teaching and coaching basketball at Russell Middle School in Kentucky. He is actively involved as a member of Rose Hill Baptist Church in Ashland. We also have the two finest daughters in law any couple could hope for. Michelle and Leigh Anne are the daughters we never had, and they are wonderful wives and mothers, Plus they have given us Quint, Will, Canon, and Asher – the joy of our lives!

Yep, it’s been a pretty good run for the past 36 years. Only God knows how many more anniversaries we may celebrate together, but one thing is certain. I am so thankful that God brought Linda into my life on that cool, crisp night in October of 1969. I am also thankful that she has put up with me and taken care of me for 36 years of matrimony.

That is no easy task.

I'll borrow a phrase from New Orleans area Pastor Fred Luter, who would say, “She is the love of my life, my better half, my best friend, my prime rib, my sweet thing. – There ain’t no woman like the one I’ve got!”