8 LESSONS FROM 20 YEARS OF MARRIAGE

By: American Decency Staff

Twenty years ago today, my wife and I said “I do” before God, family, and friends in an evangelical church in North Georgia. It is almost unfathomable to us both that two decades have passed. We began dating during the 1994 Major League Baseball strike, an event that conferred upon me a bit of disposable time as a sports journalist. My father always joked that it would take a baseball work stoppage for me to get serious about a relationship. Apparently, he was right. This tells you a lot about the man my wife married. I pray I am a very different man today with different priorities (though I still love baseball, but not as much as I love Jesus or Lisa). I am one of those guys who, by God’s sheer grace, married awfully well.

We survived the sometimes awkward newlywed years. We have lived together through significant historical events: the Y2K scare (a non-historical event, actually), an election decided by hanging chads, the tragic morning now known as 9/11, the election of an African American President of the United States. God brought me out of the newspaper business (in the nick of time!) and into the gospel ministry.

Then, in the span of five short years, our family ballooned from “just the two of us” to six of us. As parents, we have learned a thing or two about playing zone defense. We spent nearly a decade in seminary and have now weathered 17 years in ministry. The Lord has been faithful through it all. Here are some things I’ve learned from 20 adventurous and beautiful years of marriage.

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