A Marriage Worth Emulating

My Grandma and Grandpa “Top” celebrated their 55^th wedding anniversary last month.  This coming Friday, the Lord willing, B.J. and I will celebrate our 10^th. 

I miss Grandpa and Grandma.  I miss seeing them at church on Sunday.  I miss Sunday evening lunches at their house.  I miss seeing them at chapels and at school.  I miss my kids hollering, “There’s Great Grandpa’s windmill!”

I’ve learned some things about marriage from watching my grandparents, things I hope B.J. and I emulate better and better in the next 45 years.

1)    My grandparents are affectionate with one another.  When we were little and happened to be at Grandpa and Grandma’s when Grandpa was either coming or going, we always witnessed a hearty smack on the lips.  I would guess they still maintain this routine.  Grandpa and Grandma do everything together.  Very rarely does a person see one of them without the other.

2)    My grandparents are generous.  Sunday mornings when I was young, Grandpa would regularly pass an envelope to us kids through the window of our rattletrap orange van in the church parking lot (the van also camefrom him).  “You give that to your dad,” he’d bark.  We all knew what it was.  A check that would help my parents pay our tuition.  They help others in the same way, prioritizing others needs before their own wants.  They drive Brandon to dialysis regularly.  The pass out garden produce to anyone who will take it.  The two times we’ve gone back to Iowa to visit, we’ve been treated to a five-course meat and potatoes meal and gone back to Colorado loaded up with food they’ve prepared for us.  Grandma’s been my most faithful letter writer since we’ve moved, too.  When one of her letters arrives in the mail, I save it until supper and read it aloud for everyone to enjoy.

3)    My grandparents are fruitful, even in their old age.  My grandparents do an unbelieveable amount of good for their age.  Indeed, they display Psalm 92:13-14: Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.  They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; to shew that the Lord is upright: He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

Their's is a truly a marriage worth emulating.