Her children rise up and call her blessed;
    her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women have done excellently,
    but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
    but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands,
    and let her works praise her in the gates
(Proverbs 31:28-31, ESV)

Take time to get away with your spouse, not from your spouse!  Distractions abound. Work beckons. Children have wants and needs and homework and baths and messes and… and … and….

Cindy and I will be married 18 years this year (August 1–circle the date).  I met her at when I first went to seminary in 1995 as I was a part-time Minister of Music at Pleasureville Baptist Church, Pleasureville, Kentucky.  Over the following year we developed a friendship that evolved into a relationship that evolved into marriage.  As one who tended to overthink everything, I found myself nervous about marriage but crazy about her (typical man).  But I realized that if marriage was with her, I’d be crazy to let her go.

God has taken us many places: Clewiston, Florida; Cox’s Creek, Smithfield, and Lexington, Kentucky; and now Denver, Colorado–all due to God’s call to seminary and to ministry.  We’ve had seasons of ministry live that were excruciating–in fact, each chapter of ministry life has those seasons.  But she’s there!  Wife, mom, RN, preschool teacher at church, and friend.

We try to go out at least once a month on a date night to just talk, catch up, shop, dream–the whole business.  But the majority of our lives are in the ebb and flow of the routine.  And it’s in those times that the little things about who she is and how she acts fascinate me.

I see her in all my children, just like she sees me in them as well.  The nuances, idiosyncrasies, and movements they make come from our union.

I see Kentucky in her: the values, the strength, the determination that makes me feel as if Kentucky is home because I feel as if I’m always home when I’m with her.

Most of all, I see a woman who willingly goes when God calls me.  She epitomizes what Tanya York once said when I asked her, “Did you feel called to be a pastor’s wife?”  Her response nailed it: “No, I felt called to be Hershael’s wife and to support him where God called him.”  Exactly.

I’m at word 350 now.  I could go on for volumes.  Be thankful for the godly spouse God has given you.  Pray for your spouse that Christ would continue to sanctify them in the midst of all the joys and challenges life brings.