“Thank you God for allowing me to celebrate 27 years of marriage. Thank you for your word and the way it has transformed our marriage. Today I praise you Father for you are gracious. You take the mess we make and transform it into something beautiful.” Written April 25, 2019.

On April 24, 2022, my hubby and I will celebrate 30 years of marriage. There is no way to look at our beginning as a couple and not realize that God’s Word saved our marriage. 

Every year being married is a milestone in my opinion. I know that there are certain milestones that mean something. I googled what 30 years of marriage represent and it said; “The Pearl Anniversary.” 

For a pearl to be formed there is a whole process. I won’t write all that I found out but I do want to share an excerpt from an article I read on americanpearl.com. 

“The pearl formation process is quite mystical. For those who aren't deeply educated on the process, it can seem a little bit like Mother Earth's magic. And, indeed, it is. How do these seemingly commonplace little mollusks turn out exquisitely lustrous, near-perfect spheres? Like many natural processes, the birth of a pearl takes time. But when the process is complete, the result is stunning. In this piece, we'll answer all of your most pressing questions about how a pearl is formed.” 

There are two words that stood out to me from that article, mystical and magic. That is what God’s Word has done. It has given me a marriage beyond anything I could have dreamed or imagined.

I ask you to picture two suitcases filled with everything we each individually brought into our marriage. The content inside each suitcase varies. Some are necessary to keep, some not so much, and some frankly just need to be thrown out, we should not have packed it at all. Neither of us know what the other pack and some things we ourselves didn’t know we had packed (after all we only knew very little of each other before marriage. Long story…) As we sat down to open our suitcases together there was a sense of unknown that led to excitement and fear. As we placed our stuff from the suitcases together there were many emotions flowing. There were feelings of encouragement, pleasant surprise, anger, shame and more. The more we unpacked, the more feelings will rise from what we saw. Both of us knew what we did not want to keep, we were lost on what to keep. Some of the stuff we had grown attached to, but no longer needed. It was unhealthy to keep them. It was a lot for us to handle and manage, as we tried to create a new life together. We needed help. 

“I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me,  I will call on him as long as I live.” Psalm 116:1-2

God saw our need and sent us his Word! Following the Bible taught us to clean things up. God took all that mess and organized it. He taught us to throw out what was not helpful to help us become united as husband and wife. We are now officially 30 years in the making since I wrote this keepsake.

It has been a mystical, kind of magical experience and all because God Word became our guide! 

“ Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil! Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life! Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best. Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over. But don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline; don’t sulk under his loving correction. It’s the child he loves that God corrects; a father’s delight is behind all this.” MSG