Seventeen

So, today marks the 17th wedding anniversary of the king and I. Practicing my creative!

Even though seventeen years seems long, it doesn't at all seem long...puzzling...

Various wild and wonderful events have shaped us..

Experiences!

Now here we are, staring down the empty nest - in five short years they could all fly!

Things between us are pretty consistent - unlike those rough and tumble years

Experience has brought wisdom and a dose of maturity.

Encouraging and challenging one another to soar with Christ,

New things may come, but we know how to take them together.

Don't let this little poem fool you. The king and I have had a wild and crazy adventure getting here. In fact, Rashi, a jewish commentator on the Torah - seems to describe our years of marriage:

"From the time of creation, relationships between spouses have at times been adversarial. In Genesis 2:18, God calls woman an ezer kenegdo, a "helper against him." The great commentator Rashi takes the term literally to make a wonderful point: "If he [Adam] is worthy, [she will be] a help [ezer]. If he is not worthy [she will be] against him [kenegdo] for strife." This Jewish study also described man and woman facing each other with arms raised holding an arch between them, giving a beautiful picture of equal responsibility.

Yet, here, on this day... it seems as though we have learned a lot more than we anticipated, and we are a lot more stable than we should be. We still grumble and bumble... we are still human (and there are still daughters in the home)

Here's to the next seventeen!