A preview of her that day in those gates

Proverbs 31:28-31

28 Her children rise up and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
29 “Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.”
30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
31 Give her of the fruit of her hands,
and let her works praise her in the gates.

My wife, Paige, is amazing.  I love her so much and am so thankful to God for her.  She is such a great helper to me.  She encourages me in my pursuit of God.  She runs an efficient, beautiful, and fun home.  She is a great mom, wife, and friend.  She is very funny  She can laugh at the days to come, but particularly the days already passed by.

Charm and beauty are not the most determining factors for marrying someone, but they are certainly appreciated.  I would count myself blessed to have a wife like Paige if only in her character, wisdom, intelligence, prudence, humor, organization, and friendship.  But on top of that she is charming and beautiful.  She does not use either of those for her own purposes and often times is completely unaware of how cute she is.  I love that about her among everything else I mentioned previously. 

A good wife is hard to find not because women are bad, but because people are.  Jesus is good, however, and He is a firm foundation upon which to build a friendship, marriage, family, and home.  I have experienced this first hand.  The Bible's advice in finding a mate with whom you are yoked well and equally (not just in both being Christian, but in both holding similar Christian conscience convictions for example) actually produces a more pleasant and purposeful marriage.  Marriage will be difficult at times if only because two idiot sinners are involved, but there is no reason to compound the difficulty by yoking yourself to someone with whom you disagree on the most important things.

I love God and I love my wife.  Our chord of three strands is not easily broken. So remember that the next time you think about cracking wise at Team Van Voorst.

A week from today my wife and I will celebrate 5 years of marriage.  If marriage only gets sweeter with time, we are off to an amazing start.  Can it really get better than this?  We become better friends daily and I trust that God will give us grace to fulfill our covenant vows to each other and to Him in protecting and preserving us until the day we meet Him and our marriage's mysterious metaphor becomes a glorious reality.

May God grant my wife everlasting life and heavenly treasure when she approaches His gates.  May she utter the confession, "Jesus died my soul to save. Jesus paid it all.  All to Him I owe," and find herself receiving His rewards.