Thirty-nine Happy Years
Back in the mid-nineties Beverley and I took are two children to the Texas Camp near Austin. We served as camp counselors for a week. One of the night activities was a counselor talent show. One of the skits was a game show patterned after the Newlywed Game. Three couples who were counselors were chosen to participate. Beverley and I were one of the couples. At the beginning of the skit, the “Game Show Host” was going from one couple to the next asking questions in order to introduce us to the audience of nine to twelve year old campers. When the host asked us, “how long have you to been married?” I responded. “we have been happily married for seven years.” The children laughed when my wife elbowed me and corrected my math. “We have been married eleven years not seven.” She should have known is was a set up, but the others realized it when I remarked, “Yes that is correct, but seven happy years out of eleven ain’t bad.”
Although that event seems like yesterday, as of today, Beverley and I have been married thirty-nine years. And by the way, they have been all happy years. What makes for decades of happy matrimony? Finding a good wife was key for me.
Proverbs 31:10 ESV – An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.
Proverbs 19:14 ESV – House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.
Proverbs 12:4 ESV – An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones.
Proverbs 18:22 ESV – He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.
Of course, just finding a good wife is not enough. Husbands, need to learn to do their part. Peter wrote, “husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered” (1 Peter 3:7, NKJV).
Marriage itself does not make a man and a woman happy. But a man and a woman can make a happy marriage.
– Daniel R. Vess