8

I've always liked the number 8. It just looks pretty. (Confession: I've always attributed personalities to numbers. The number 8 has always been male in my mind. Sort of a dapper fellow with good manners but just a little bit cheeky at the same time.)

Today is significant for me, Jonathan and the number 8. We've been married 8 years today. Which means we've known each other for over a decade (which is weird so we we won't think much on that)!

And these have been eight of the most crazy, beautiful, hectic, chaotic, terrifying, humbling, miserable, exhilarating,  exhausting and happy years of our lives. (I can say that without asking Jonathan. Because it's true. Ha. So there.)

Do I love him better than I did when I say "I do"? What a silly question. You learn to love for real after your married - when life comes along and you are forced to move with it. When hard decisions have to be made and you have to make a conscious choice to stay a team no matter what. When God gives you little people to raise together - and who expose you further for who you really are, warts and all.  Is marriage magical? Moments are. And then there are moments which aren't. We've had to battle how to make it through another hour with each other and then how to come back and make things right between us. And you know what? I respect him all the more for coming back to conversations when they do not promise to be pretty. I have grown in respect and admiration - and love, yes - through the nitty gritty. It's seeing the staying power during the harder times that make the good times better.  I know we'll stand with one another through anything because when the going gets tough, one or both of us always points the other to Christ who is the only hope and answer when it comes to weathering the storms. Our relationship with Jesus Christ helps us to go on holding hands when the wind blows.

We continue to learn. We continue to grow. We continue to fail and succeed, laugh and cry, plant trees, mow lawns, do laundry, wipe little noses, can vegetables, go to work, play piano, read stories, pick up trash and sit down to dinner all together as a family. It seems to always be getting better and harder at the same time.

And I wouldn't trade it. Because I'm blessed by it.

And again, in song:

Still (and predictably) -

A little country (for kicks) that is funny and not -

Yup (check out all the little hearts all through the lyrics) -

(Coincidentally, Clint Black wrote the above song for his wife on their 8th anniversary. And they are still married.)

 And just in case we ever forget the processional at our wedding (which still manages to make me cry!):

Non nobis Domine, non nobis Domine,  sed nomine tuo da gloriam Non nobis Domine, non nobis Domine, s ed nomine tuo da gloriam
Not unto us, O Lord  Not unto us, O Lord  But to your name, but to your name  May all the glory be!

I love you, Jonathan.