68 years

Yesterday (Sunday) we celebrated Duane's grandparents 68th wedding anniversary. Yes, you read it correctly 68 YEARS or 24,820 days of being whole-heartily committed to serving one another for better or worse, in sickness and in health, all the days of their lives.  And Bill and Catherine Johnston have been an amazing example of just that.  They are truly a beacon of light in a world where nothing seems to last forever.

Curiosity got the best of me and I looked up what one would get someone who has been married 68 years.  What I found what a bit upsetting-- they have restructured or "updated" the anniversary milestone gift chart.  I am quoting from a website that I found this info on www.well-chosen-gift.com, "The Modern lists have moved luxury gifts to earlier anniversaries, in part because fewer couples reach their 50th or even their 25th wedding anniversary, even though people are generally living longer."  In other words, we are allowing couples to reach to golden milestone gifts sooner because quite frankly no one goes the distance anymore.  And it isn't just a little bit earlier... you get the good stuff at 5 YEARS now!  Full disclosure: I do not follow the milestone chart. In fact, Duane and I hardly even get each other anniversary gifts.  But I do think it is silly that we have restructured a chart that began in 1920 because people are having trouble staying married longer than 5 years!

All you need is love, right?  Well, marriage is hard work and my sweet husband would be the first one to admit that loving me is not always the easiest thing to do.  I have a feeling though that Bill and Catherine Johnston would remind me that romantic love isn't the only thing that makes a marriage go the distance.  As I have observed them for the last 10 years (since Duane and I met), I have learned that that type devotion is much more than a romantic, Hallmark card kind of love.  Their love is truly what Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13 and #1 verse used as home wall decor: "Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails...". 

Can you imagine the patience, kindness, and humbleness that is required to walk hand in hand with your soul mate for 68 years?! How many times they had to bite their tongues to avoid getting into what would have been a silly argument or how many moments they have had to cling to one another to get through a bump in the road?  I am convinced that marriage is not harder now than it was back then-- I just think they have better endurance to stay the course than couples now-a-days do. 

Duane and I feel so blessed to have Grandma and Grandpa Johnston (and all our grandparents actually) as role models of how to love.  As we sat at the nursing home and enjoyed cake to celebrate their love, they were simply holding hands, sitting side by side.  What an amazing love and an amazing legacy!