Mindy Lee Hopman

This is the day which the LORD has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118:24 NASB).

In the blink of an eye, twenty years have gone by! The smell of cinnamon rolls permeated the air as my family prepared for school this morning. The aroma alone set the stage for one sweet day.  Normally freshly-baked cinnamon rolls are reserved for birthday celebrations, but today Jon and I reached twenty years of marriage, and that is a great reason to celebrate!

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh (Ephesians 5:31 NIV).

Twenty years ago, the moment we looked into each other’s eyes and said “I do” is still fresh in my mind.  I can picture Jon’s smile as I stood at the end of the aisle; our eyes locked as my father and step-father walked me slowly towards him. 

Two children and twenty years later, we are still two ordinary people trying to keep up with the craziness of life, and I can honestly say that we have made it to this point only by the grace of God.

See, a few months before we decided to get married, my family started attending a small church-plant in Virginia. The church met in a middle school auditorium where the music touched our hearts and the messages moved our souls. The beautiful church family reached out to my broken family and took us in as their own. We learned about who God is, how He loves us so much that he sent his son to die for us, and how He has a great eternal plan for our lives. 

Jon proposed to me and we asked Pastor Robby to marry us, but first, we had to meet with him for marriage counseling. Each visit, Kim (Pastor Robby’s wife), met us at the door with warm, melty chocolate chip cookies. Comfort and love surrounded our young and naive hearts in their home. We asked hard questions and they answered honestly. Then Pastor Robby asked us how we planned on raising our children.

When he asked us this question we looked at each other and said, “As Christians, of course!”

He looked at both of us and said, “Do you know what that means?”

We looked at each other and our answer to him was, “Um, no, I guess we don’t.”

Pastor Robby knew my mom raised me in a single-parent, Jewish home. We knew God, but we did not know His Son. Pastor Robby knew Jon had two parents at home, but they did not attend church regularly.

And that’s when he explained to us:
– God’s eternal promise is to both believing Jews and Gentiles (Romans 1:16).
– That Christ came to die for us (1st Timothy 1;15) in order to fulfill that promise.
– What it means to be a Christ-follower and what that looks like “lived out” (2nd Corinthians 5:7).
– He told us that when we turn back to God’s Son, the cross sets us free from our sin yesterday, today, and tomorrow (Romans 6:14,22)
– It’s at that time we receive the eternal gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)

We are never alone in the decisions we make and a marriage is made of a cord of three – Husband, Wife, and God.

A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart (Ecclesiastes 4:12 NASB).

Pastor Robby shared with us what it means to be a follower of Christ, what that looks like in a marriage, and how important it is to pass down a legacy of faith to our children.

You cannot pass down something that you do not have.

We built our marriage on The Rock from the beginning, yet this does not mean we don’t have struggles. We definitely have our fair share, however how we handle them is different.

We fix our eyes on Him.
He forgave, so we forgive.
He showed mercy, so we show mercy.
He loved well, so we love well.
He treasured others, so we treasure others.

Things which were once important, don’t seem as important anymore.

Mutual respect towards each other is more important than always being right. 

Have we let each other down?  Absolutely, but Christ picks us right back up again.  Have we made mistakes?  Absolutely.  Christ didn’t come for those who appear well, He came for those who recognize brokenness and are in need of a Savior.

I know that regardless of how hard we try, we will never completely satisfy each other.  We will always be in need of more.  We love each other dearly, however, the satisfaction we give each other is temporary.  God, alone, gives eternal satisfaction.

A marriage is about so much more than what you can see.

Marriage is the closest example of oneness that we have here on earth.  Our wedding is a symbol for the great wedding which will happen one day when Christ and the church are united as one.

All we can say to you my friend is it could have been so different, but today we hit twenty years, and we are still counting!

Basking in His Light

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