Happy 21st Anniversary!

It was a wonderfully overcast Southern California June morning in 1986 when we took our vows to love and cherish each other. We were so optimistic and fearless about our future together. We made a commitment to each other and to God that we would spend our lives in service to Him. Through the years we have endured many trials only to discover that the vows we exchanged twenty-one years ago have been strengthened through God's work in our lives. Thanks for being the only one who can melt my heart with your smile, who never leaves the house without a kiss and does not let a day go by without telling me you love me! Happy 21st Anniversary! I love you more than you will ever know!

Thankful for Friends

"A friend," someone wrote, "is one who knows the song in your heart - and can sing it back to you when you've forgotten the words." (quote from Alice Gray)

There is no better gift in all the world than a dear friend who knows you well and loves you still! Acquaintances come and go, but true friendship is like a pathway through a fragrant summer garden. Whether they resemble dearly loved rosebushes, with blooms that seem to grow more lovely with the passing years or a bright new flower that lifts its face to the sun and has arrived with a new season of life, friends are the most delightful garden. How soothing to linger through a long afternoon, to talk and laugh, dream and maybe share a tear or two. It is a garden where pretenses are set aside and we can just be who we are.

I am thankful for a dearly loved rosebush who has been there for years. She is a sweet fragrance and has graced my life for more than a decade. She is now officially a blogger and I am so thankful that even though many miles distance our old familiar walks and talks, she is only a click away from me hearing her heart and smelling the sweet fragrance of her life. Go and visit her at Traveling Light.

For more "Thankful" posts visit Iris at Sting My Heart

I give thanks to you...

I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,

and I will glorify your name forever.

Psalm 86:12

Taken from Gospel Primer, Poetic VersionBut wonders of wonders, so great to behold, My God chose to save mewith method so bold. What I could not render,God fully has done,And doing, He rendered itall through His Son.He sent Christ to dieon the cross for my sinTo suffer my anguish my pardon to win.Amazing it is, when I stop to regard,That God would consentto an anguish so hard,Surrend'ring His Sonunto mayhem and death,To torturous writhing'til His final breath. 'Why does God forsake Me?'alone Jesus cried;Yet God left Him hanginguntil He had died.That Jesus was willing His life to lay down,Be scourged and insulted and wear thorny crownFor one such as I who had spited God so,Amazes and blesses and makes me to knowThat greater a loveis no man than He,Who laid down His lifefor a sinner like me.

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