The View From The Pew for 9/12/08

Today is my wedding anniversary. Twenty-seven years ago, on September 12, 1981 Lanette Sanford (insert your favorite “Sanford and Son” joke here, she’s heard ‘em all) became Mrs. Lanette Godsey. Our wedding was the culmination of a whirlwind courtship that turned into a lifetime together.
Lanette was a blonde young woman at Beaumont First Assembly of God, my grandfather’s church. I glanced her way in church one night, not knowing who she was. She was buttoning an errant button on her blouse, and she smiled at me when our eyes met. I definitely needed to find out who she was! I asked a woman in the church who the cute blonde was, and it turned out to be her niece. We ended up going to Carl’s Jr. with a bunch of other people, and that was it.
We talked on the phone and in person, but it wasn’t until later that I took Lanette out and really got to know her. My grandfather gave me money for lunch and coupons for Sizzler. As you can see, Lanette was clearly not into me for my money! There was something about her, though, and I told one of my friends at college, “I just met the woman I am going to marry.”
We gave each other our hearts on a road by Oak Glen, and I asked her if she would spend the rest of her life with me while we were in the mountains overlooking Banning. On September 12th she became my wife, and nothing has ever been the same.
Through all these years she has been right beside me. Oh, it hasn’t always been sweet. We have had our moments. Moments when we thought we couldn’t be happier, moments when we thought we might never be happy again, and all manner of moments in between. Through it all we have stayed together, out of commitment to each other, commitment to our sons, commitment to God, and just plain stubbornness!
We have raised two young men who I hope will one day find women as good as their mom. I pray that they will treat their wives better than I have treated their mom at times, and be better at fathering than I ever was.
I would do it all over again. After twenty-seven years I would change some things, but some things I could never change. I would change a bunch of things, but not the girl I married. I would buy her a bigger diamond, but I couldn’t give her more of my heart. I would be more attentive, but I couldn’t be more in love. I would spend more time with her, but I couldn’t enjoy it more. I would marry her again, except it took so well the first time I think I’ll leave it alone.
She has been with me through good times and bad, poor times and not so poor times (you can’t really say we’ve ever been rich). I can’t imagine my life without her, or anyone else I would rather have spent these last twenty-seven years with.
Our marriage of twenty-seven years really has been five of the happiest years of my life… Lanette hates that joke! She says I have been using it for years and that the number should be going up. I point out that no other number is as funny as five. Our life together is just about as full as it can get, and that is truer than any of my lame jokes!
Happy anniversary, baby… Jerry