Saturday was our 45th wedding anniversary. I kept saying to myself the number 45……45…….45 years! That is a long time! We took some vows 45 years ago and I decided to look up the vows we took on December 18th, 1976 because for the most part I had forgotten them…:)

I, Paul

take you, Roxie,
to be my wedded wife,
to have and to hold from this day forward,
for better, for worse,
for richer, for poorer,
in sickness and in health,
to love and to cherish,
till death us do part,
according to God’s holy will; and I pledge to you my faithfulness

I sat in my chair reading those words over and over, trying to understand what each word meant and to see how I had done over the last 45 years. So, I was evaluating the last 45 years of my marriage. I must say I’ve done well on some and not so good on other parts of the vow. To be really honest when I took the vows as a 19 year old man at the altar that day they really didn’t mean much. It was tradition to recite the vows. I really didn’t put much thought into it. Now that I am 64 and reading the vows that we took it really has meaning to me now.

What do your vows mean? I found this on the internet and thought they said it way better than I ever could; At the center of any marriage ceremony are the wedding vows. They are the words spoken by the couple to each other which express both an intent and a promise. … They are a promise to work hard at living out this intent, no matter how challenging that may be, because of their love and commitment to each other. Vows force us to recognize that we need to appreciate each other on a regular basis. Wedding vows let couples hear why they are chosen and fulfill their need to feel wanted and appreciated. … The vows are our way to emphasize what values are important to us when things are bad.

We took a vow before God, our family and friends to love each other no matter how difficult life got and to do this till death do us part. In our 45 years of marriage there have been some really challenging and difficult times. We worked through those times and became better people and strengthened our marriage. Roxie and I have had a wonderful marriage, we have worked hard at it. Lots of dates, and together times. We have also made some very important decisions in our life that made a huge impact on our marriage. The first being, early in our marriage we both decided to commit our lives to following Jesus and asked him to come into our lives. He has made the difference. Marriage is God’s idea to begin with. The second was reading the book Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. That was an eye opener on how to speak love to your mate. You are to serve your mate and stop being selfish. The other was taking the course Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey. These things have made a huge difference in our life and our marriage.

I am looking forward to more years together. Till death do us part. We, have created a wonderful family of four children and their spouses and now 7 grandchildren. We are blessed for sure. Life is good.