Marriage and 48 Years Later

Arvid and I just celebrated our 48^th Wedding Anniversary. When I first met Arvid in Brooklyn, New York my heart was wounded. I was cross eyed, fearful and far from being the confident woman I am today. Loss of all kinds filled my life.   I never thought any good thing could come to my life. Even on my wedding day I was sure that something would happen to stop the wedding. However, here I am 48 years later because of God’s faithfulness.   Arvid and I have three children and seven grandchildren. Together we have journeyed together through the good times as well as the challenging times.  We have lived and traveled to many places in the world. He has supported and encouraged me with my vision of SCSM that the Lord gave me so many years ago.  I am often asked how I stayed married so long.  It was easy, we both made a decision at the altar that no matter how tough times got we would never talk about divorce.  I do remember times when we did not like each other too much!  Even then, as we brought our emotions and situation to God it all worked out. Prayer was, and still is, our biggest weapon against the enemy of our soul.  When you hurt, you want your own way and you stop listening to your spouse.  We would pray, and we still do, asking God to help us to always remember that He brought us together and He will have the power to keep us together. We made a covenant between God and each other in the beginning and decided that we were not going to break that covenant. Scripture has guided us as we have had to make some tough decisions but God has been faithful to us. My love for Arvid and respect for him has deepened in a way that I could not even imagine 48 years ago. He is a man of integrity, a man of God, a man to be trusted and He is MY MAN. I am so grateful to God and my prayer is that we will have many more years together to prove that marriage can work when it is done God’s way.