{"id":14544,"date":"2021-07-08T04:44:59","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T09:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=14544"},"modified":"2021-07-08T04:45:05","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T09:45:05","slug":"a-love-that-lasts-to-infinity-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=14544","title":{"rendered":"A Love that Lasts to Infinity and Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thanks, Buzz Lightyear! Yes, I am a product of my grandchildren\u2019s (and, mine too) favorite animated “Toy Story” movies. Truth is I had that kind of love. From just kids at 12 and 13, ours was young love that matured to a love that would last forever. We were going to grow old together, but God changed all that when my sweetheart slipped to “infinity and beyond” just after our 44th anniversary. Now, when I see older couples still holding hands and still desperately in love with each other — it makes me so proud for them. I often think about “the way we were” and “the way we would have been”, but this day reminds me of what I had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I get a little selfish on \u201cour\u201d day and I blog for my pleasure of remembering what was, still is \u2013 at least in my memory bank. Speaking of memories, these photos are of collages in my 60th birthday scrapbook and they give me pause for gratitude. Thank you for indulging me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Today, July 8th, 55 years ago, I married my best friend and the love of my life. He was my \u201cone and only\u201d. I miss him today more than ever. There weren\u2019t many things we would do without the other, but this time, God\u2019s plans trumped ours. One of us got their \u201cearly departure ticket\u201d for heaven. He earned it, and God was ready to give him His best! As I told a new widow recently, \u201cHeaven keeps getting sweeter for us. Our sweethearts finished their assignments. Now we get to finish ours. We\u2019re still here so we\u2019re not done.\u201d I maintain that outlook as I live each day on assignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We came upon the \u201cin sickness and in health\u201d wedding vows sooner than we could have imagined. Was it 44 years of wedded bliss? Heavens, NO! It was 44 years of beautiful AND tough times. Much of this young girl\u2019s dream for \u201chappy ever after\u201d went by the wayside in the first week of marriage. LOL! My sweet husband worked two jobs, carried a full load of college hours and I worked at a $1.25\/hour job to help make ends meet. Then after three months of marriage, my man \u2013 the daring, bold and audacious risk taker that he was, announced, \u201cI think it\u2019s time we should start our family!\u201d Bada bing bada boom \u2013 nine months later our beautiful baby boy added to the mix of our young, na\u00efve \u201chappy ever after\u201d world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We were two kids, flying by the seat of our pants, learning each day what love and forgiveness were all about. When we disagreed and quarreled, it was more like siblings than husband and wife. Our two kids learned the word for those quarrels as \u201cdiscussions\u201d. But here\u2019s what made this \u201cmatch made in heaven\u201d last. Those vows we said were those of Ruth to her mother-in-law, Naomi, after the death of their husbands and Naomi\u2019s urging her daughter-in-law to return to her family of origin. I still get \u201cgoosies\u201d when I hear Ruth\u2019s reply to her mother-in-law (and the vows my husband and I made at our wedding ceremony): \u201cDon\u2019t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!\u201d (Ruth 1:16-17)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We made God our CENTER. Bottom line — marriage is NOT for the faint of heart. Serious issues can come with the territory. That\u2019s why we needed divine help. We made our vows before God, and continued to call on Him for strength to make it through those times. We found that God was ALWAYS there to help us through it. None of our issues fazed God in the slightest. He could handle it. So much so, that our journey became sweeter as the years went by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My life continues to be filled with so many golden nuggets which include our union’s precious family. I continue to be grateful for the treasures that bless my life. Knowing how our story would end\u2026.I\u2019d do it all again. And to show how thankful I am\u2026..I\u2019m going to continue strong on this incredible faith journey, make more memories with our family and friends and continue writing many chapters, posts and blogs that celebrate LIFE on this side of heaven\u2026..until the day I get to join my Sweetheart in our Home Sweet Home in heaven! Happy 55th Anniversary and see ya’ later, my forever sweetheart!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks, Buzz Lightyear! Yes, I am a product of my grandchildren\u2019s (and, mine too) favorite animated “Toy Story” movies. Truth is I had that kind of love. From just kids at 12 and 13, ours was young love that matured to a love that would last forever. We were going to grow old together, but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13822,21082,21083],"tags":[1072,1873,1197,1210,9655,1769,21081,21079,21078,40,5411,7712,2555,1606,21080,13455,7134,10445],"class_list":["post-14544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anniversary","category-infinity-and-beyond","category-the-way-we-were","tag-anniversary","tag-assignment","tag-best-friend","tag-blog","tag-buzz-lightyear","tag-christian","tag-christian-inspiration","tag-early-departure","tag-infinity-and-beyond","tag-inspiration","tag-love-of-my-life","tag-memory-bank","tag-never-leave-you","tag-remembering","tag-ruth-and-naomi","tag-see-ya-later","tag-sickness-and-in-health","tag-the-way-we-were"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14550,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14544\/revisions\/14550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}