Covenant Marriage-An Act of Faith

My husband and I celebrated forty-seven years of marriage last week. While our four grown sons are a testament to that many years, it seems like yesterday in so many ways. Finding the right spouse is always an act of faith. This is imperative because, when you say your vows, you create a covenant between you, your spouse, and God.

Our story began long before we even knew one another. Well, isn’t that the way it is for all couples? I mean, God tells us He knows the plans He has for us (Jeremiah 29:11). While we were busy growing up, God was busy planning our lives and the very day we would meet.

But how many of us can actually trace where our connections to one another began? For J and me, of course it began as it did for each of you, in the mind of God. But in doing our genealogies, I came upon an unexpected relationship.

It seems J’s GGG grandfather, William Parker Miller, knew my GGG grandfather, Daniel Burdeshaw. I don’t know how they came to know one another other than both were well-known ministers at the time. His was Baptist, mine was Methodist. Each of them preached the abolition of slavery from their pulpits. In South Alabama at the time of the Civil War. Brave men. Oh, and his GGG grandfather had a grandson named for my GGG grandfather.

Fast forward to the late 1960s. I was in college in Birmingham at the Methodist college, Birmingham-Southern, and J was across town at the Baptist school, Samford University. A mutual friend introduced us our senior year.

All I can tell you is that it was magical. We hit it off from the very beginning. After one week, we were engaged. You read that correctly. Just a week.  When you know, you know.

Let me back up a bit. This is another unbelievable aspect of our story.

My mother-in-love grew up in what I still call my hometown. We graduated from the same high school, 28 years apart. Hers was the first graduating class in the new high school. She went away to nursing school in Birmingham, met J’s dad and they married and reared their three children there.

But J’s Granny was still in my hometown. It seems that Granny was in a club for older ladies called The Sunshine Club. My Mama was in a club called Altrusa. The Altrusa Club members each had a lady from the Sunshine Club that they sponsored—meaning, they took them shopping or to eat lunch or to get their hair done. Just spending time with them.

You guessed it. J’s Granny was my Mama’s lady. They went all over doing things together. Mama took her shopping, to get her hair done, all kinds of things. I’m sure Mama loved doing this as her mother had passed away when Mama was only 35. I know she missed her.

After J and I met, we discovered that we had those links between us. Without a doubt, our relationship began long before we ever became a couple and eventually married.

This is just the highlights of how we came to our 47^th year together. It’s actually 49. We were engaged for seventeen months to the day we got married.

Have you told your kids about your relationship and how you came to find one another, fall in love, and get married?

One of the things we regret is that we didn’t ask more questions of our parents. We know his met on a blind date and who they double-dated with that night. That couple wound up marrying, too.

We know my parents dated, but we don’t know how they met, who introduced them. So many things we wish we’d asked.

Let me urge you to begin to write down all the things you can remember. Just facts will do. Your family members will be able to put the pieces together as long as you give them enough information. Future generations will thrilled when they find the words you left for them.

 

Whenever your special day was/is in this very weird 2020, Happy Anniversary!

Covenant Marriage - An Act of Faith @DDuPreeWilliams #writing #faith Share on X

 

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