Our Silver Anniversary - Years 1-5

 

In 5 months on December 2, 2014 we will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.

I think it's called the Silver Anniversary because it has been refined, through trial, and a whole bunch of error.  All the refining has definitely made us stronger in the Lord and in our marriage.

Isaiah 48:10-11English Standard Version (ESV)

10 

Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;

    I have tried[a] you in the furnace of affliction.

11 

For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,

    for how should my name[b] be profaned?

    My glory I will not give to another.

I thought it would be fun for the next 5 months to break our last 25 years down into 5 year blog posts.  This post will be years 1-5.

This is THE LOVE PALACE.
 We only lived here for the first few months of our marriage and then we downgraded to a travel trailer for the next 9 months.
 I have no pictures of the trailer, we tried not to keep too many memories of the "trailer days".

This was our first house that we bought.  It was a brand new 2 bedroom mobile home and we were pumped.

We had our first baby, Lashae, in 1992.  

 

We had our second baby, Kole in 1994.  

 The picture above is Kole's 1st rodeo weekend on the 4th of July weekend when he was just one week old.

Yep, we were THOSE parents....nothing was going to slow us down from OUR LIVES.  

Charlie was working construction and still riding bulls in the PRCA.

I worked for the airlines for the first 5 years of our marriage. 

 I went from baggage gorilla, to flight attendant, to customer service agent.

We worked hard and played hard in those first 5 years.  

We loved each other a whole bunch, and we knew how to have a good time when we were together.

Even in those early days..we didn't spend much time together, we were often going different directions.

We were 2 VERY independent people that didn't know how to put anything before ourselves. 

We had a very narrow view of God and the world.

We knew the Jesus as our Savior and our marriage was started on THAT SOLID FOUNDATION, we were just gone a LOT and not standing on that FOUNDATION.

We knew Jesus should be the most important part of our lives...we just got kinda busy and self centered most times and made

 EVERYTHING

 else the priority.

If there was one thing I would do different in those first 5 years, it would be this:

I would have done what God said:

Mark 12:30English Standard Version (ESV)

30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

I'm so thankful for the first 5 years, but OH LORD I would not want to do THAT again.

I'm so thankful for the years and the refining and the memories and the progress.

Even if the refining and progress has aged us to looking a bit rough...things tend to feel smoother.

I'm thankful that the Lord can use it ALL.  The good the bad and the ugly, He can use it all for His glory.