Why Wedding Anniversaries are important

Me and Vicki
Saturday, Aug. 16, 1986
Wedding Anniversaries are important.
Don't take them lightly.

Vicki and I celebrate our 32nd Anniversary this week on Thursday, Aug. 16. There's nothing particularly significant about No. 32, but we will still press the pause button of our lives and spend a couple of days together. Vicki is adamant that we celebrate our anniversary on Aug. 16 each year - our actual Wedding date. It doesn't matter if it's a Tuesday or a Wednesday or a Thursday. We celebrate the day - we even celebrate the time on the day (the service began at 7:30 p.m.).

Here's why Wedding Anniversaries (even No. 32) are important and deserving of recognition.

1. There's something supernatural at work.
For Jesus followers, like Vicki and me, marriage goes all the way back to the beginning of time. It was breathed into existence by God, who saw that man needed a partner (woman) and created her. This partner wasn't to walk in front of or behind the man - but beside him as a partner in life. The things of God are holy (set apart from all other things), and marriage is one of those.
The Anniversary of when Vicki and I stepped into this supernatural partnership, along with God, is absolutely worthy of remembering and celebrating. In fact, I believe every anniversary is to be celebrated as much as the actual wedding date. For me, the perseverance is absolutely just as important as the beginning.
And, an important footnote: I will go to my grave knowing that my Vicki was an answered prayer. Even today, I can take you to the exact spot where I got on my knees in November 1981 and prayed, "Lord, I know you know who she is even if I don't. I'm ready when you are." I met her two weeks later. I believe in the supernatural power of prayer because I've benefited from it my entire life and never was an answer so important as the one that came from that prayer in November 1981.

Us. From a few years ago.
2. There's no more loneliness.
For 32 years, I've left my socks on the kitchen table.
There, I've confessed it. I also have been known to toss other articles of clothing on the table.
Some people don't cap the toothpaste or they leave dirty dishes on the counter - I toss my socks on the table.
Sleeping with me, Vicki says, is like being in a tornado - a 250 pound tornado. That's why we've always had a king-sized bed.
Still, when I am out of town, and she's alone, she's glad to see me when I come home. She's even said, "It's kind of lonely - there's no one to laugh with." We laugh together every single day.
Even after 32 years.
I remember the five single years before we got married and we were separated by hundreds of miles. I ate spaghetti or Hamburger Helper most nights - cooked and ate alone. Those were some lonely days. Communication was tougher than it is today. I had to walk 15 minutes to a pay telephone, at the Zippy Mart, on Monday nights at 10 p.m. for the chance to talk to her for 20 minutes.
Marriage, for me, erased the loneliness.
That's cause for celebration. To have this soul-mate, this lifelong person right beside you - even with socks on the table. It's important.

It takes a partnership - pirates for 16 years and counting.
Ahoy.
3. There's partnership.
In 2005, I had pretty serious intestinal surgery. I was in the hospital for five days. Every time I opened my eyes, Vicki was there to my right - sitting, waiting, watching. She was being my eyes, ears, and voice. On Day Four, I was feeling better and she said, "What do you want?" I told her to get a quart of World Class Chocolate ice cream from Baskin Robbins and the biggest spoon she could find. She got it and smuggled it into my room. We ate it together.
Marriage is partnership - in all things and all the time. Up or down, thick or thin, - even when your Anniversary celebration is at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 16th at Chick-fil-a cause that's all you can afford with four little boys at home.
Vicki knows that I hate to make up the bed in the morning. She makes it up for me, and never makes a big deal about it. I don't love her more or less because of it - it's just a sign of our partnership.
When the boys started school, I told her that I would cook supper every night if she would take on the homework duties. I was a C student. She never made anything lower than a stinking A. It made sense. I enjoy cooking; she's not a big fan of it. Partnership.
My OCD kicks in when it comes to loading a dishwasher, but I hate to unload it. She prefers to unload, but hates loading it. Partnership - in all things big and small. She'll wash a load of clothes, but hates folding them. I enjoy folding them while I watch sports on television. Partnership. I drive. She navigates.
There's joy in working together with someone you love to move both your lives down the road.

All of this, and much more, is why No. 32 is important this week.
It's why we pause to celebrate each and every one - every year.
It's why every one of our Anniversaries is just as important as the others.

www.scottdvaughan.com

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