An Open Letter to My Husband on His Birthday

 

To my one,

With all that we have going on, the craziness our year has become and may further continue to be, I want to take a moment to wish you a most blessed birthday.  We’ve known each other for almost eleven years, been married almost seven, and there is no one in this world I would rather be bound to for this lifetime on Earth than you.

When we met, you were a young eighteen year old, shy and kinda geeky.  I, on the other hand, could be crazy and a bit unruly.  Yet your behind-the-scenes quietness and steadfastness has taught me so much and brought me through even more.  You let me be myself, loved me with my sensitive spirit, and taught me how to be so much better of a person than I thought I could be.

And from that time I have seen you grow in maturity, in both person and spirit, yet your steadfastness has never failed.  We’ve had our hard times (how you know we have), and through it all I have seen your love and your commitment only grow stronger.

Through sickness, through disappointments, through the twists and turns that we never saw coming, through the noes we’ve received from the Lord, and the more surprising yeses!

You’ve allowed the Lord to use our good times and our bad to only make our relationship and your love for me increase.  No matter what’s ahead (for I know it won’t be easy), I will love and respect you more each day that we spend together, side-by-side, surrounded by our Father.

To the prayer that was said over us on the day we were joined together as husband and wife, I will continue to pray as the Lord hears it and fulfills His will in our life:

Heavenly Father,

You have established marriage for our welfare and happiness.  Yours was the plan and only with You can we work it our with joy.  You have said, “It is not good for man to be alone.  I will make a helper, suitable for him.”  Now our joys are doubled since the happiness of one is the happiness of the other.  Our burdens are halved; for when we share them, we divide the load.

Bless Mark.  Bless him as provider and protector, and sustain him in all the pressures of his battle for bread.  May his strength be Sarah’s protection; his character, her boast and her pride.  And may he so live that she will find him the haven for which the heart of woman truly belongs.

Bless Sarah.  Give her the tenderness that will make her great, a deep sense of understanding, and a great faith in You.  Give her that inner beauty of soul that never fades, that eternal youth that is found in holding fast to the things that never age.

Teach them both that marriage is not living merely for each other; it is the two uniting and joining hands to serve You.  Give them a great spiritual purpose in life.  May they seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness, and then the other things will be added to them.

May they not expect that perfection of each other that belongs alone to You.  May they minimize each other’s weaknesses, and be swift to praise and magnify each other’s points of comeliness and strength, and see each other through a lover’s kind and patient eyes.  Now, make such assignments to them on the scroll of Your will as will bless them and develop their characters as they walk together.  Give them enough tears to keep them tender; enough hurts to keep them humane; enough failures to keep their hands clenched tightly in Yours; and enough success to make them sure they walk with You.

When life is done and the sun is setting, may they be found then as now, hand in hand, still thanking You for each other.  May they serve You happily, faithfully, together, until at last one shall lay the other into Your arms.

This we ask through our Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Happy birthday to a man who is more than my husband, my best friend, and my partner.  May the Lord bless you this year in all that you do, knowing that I have given and stand firm behind my pledge to you to be faithful, loving, a support and encouragement as spiritual leader of our household, in plenty or want, through joy or sorrow, in sickness and health until one of us joins our Lord and Savior.

My love is forever yours!