Marriage vows

I have 2 different co- workers that are getting married this year. Weddings are such sweet, romantic times and it got me to thinking of the marriage vows.

A vow is a solemn promise.

Larry and I will be married 29 years this year!  Twenty nine years ago we stood before a small group of friends and said our vows.

What did we vow all those many years ago.

To have and to hold from this day forward,
Ok, this is one I didn't fully understand when I got married.  Larry is definitely a cuddler.  His love language is touch.  That is far from my love language.  So I'm still working on this one.

for better, for worse,
The better--travelling, hiking, camping, geocaching, kids, babies, friends, kite flying, watching the moon rise, star gazing, laughing till my stomach hurts

The worse-fighting, raising teens at times, other stuff that nobody wants to remember or talk about and is way too personal to list here.  Yes, the bad stuff happens.  Sometimes it's so much worse than you could ever imagine or anticipate. 

for richer, for poorer,
I'll have to admit the richer is so much better.   But it was all those years of scrimping and saving and having an eat out limit of $2 each, that got us to this point.  Larry has always had a long term outlook.  We have always been pretty big cheapskates and that has allowed us the freedom now to spend a little more freely and bless others too.


in sickness and in health,
We've had our share of sicknesses and illnesses, broken bones and trips to the emergency room, surgeries,  strange swellings, rashes and other oddities

Otherwise we've been fairly healthy! Now that we are treating our whole bodies with nutrition and other natural methods, both of us rarely get sick any more.


to love and to cherish, 
When we first married, we had to define what love was.  We decided that it was first and foremost commitment, then there is friendship love, and then the "woozy woozy" love.  We might not always feel the woozy or the friendship, but the commitment is always there. 

Looking up the definition of cherish-- it means to hold something dear, to protect and care for lovingly.  Yes, Larry most definitely does this for me.


till death do us part,
We've been through the deaths of all my grandparents, Larry's dad, my mom, my niece.  Death is really hard.  It makes you realize how you want to live.  Death is something we will all experience.  I don't know what I'll do when Larry's gone.  I always joke I'll move to Fiji!  Maybe I will who knows! 

Contrary to popular belief today, vows do mean something.  It's not a one time deal.  I fail all the time.  Even after all these 29 years, I still have so much to work on.  But it's neat to see how far we've come.   It's even neater to see where we are going.