Today is our 13th Wedding Anniversary.
A few years ago, while standing in our kitchen, we had a talk about how we wanted people to remember us. I don't remember the exact circumstances that led us to such a conversation but we quickly agreed that our hope was that people, when we're gone, would say "The Rileys really showed up."
We talked that day about how we hope remembrances of us are stories like "Mark came to fix my dryer late one night..." or "Amy brought us a meal each time we had a baby..." or "The Rileys let us borrow their lawn mower when ours broke..."
We committed, early on, to put others first. To have our actions be an outward sign of the deep devotion that we both have to the Lord. We know it is not our works that save us and that we are saved only by the goodness of God's grace so that we cannot boast in ourselves (Ephesians 2:8-10) But especially as a United Methodist Christian I believe that our acts are our means of sharing God's goodness and grace. We want people to say "Those Rileys sure are different. I wonder what makes them that way..." that way we can say "Hey Friend! Let me tell you about Jesus."
We selecting our wedding verses (Colossians 3:12-15 and Romans 12:9-18) we really wanted verses that were different then the typical wedding "Love is patient, love is kind..." readings. We viewed the readings of those verses as a second kind of vows. A way of saying to our family and friends, THIS is how we are promising to live as a couple.I go into more detail about those verses and why we chose them in our 5th Wedding Anniversary post. The beginning of that Romans passage is "Don't just pretend to love others, really love them."
For our 7th Wedding Anniversary I reflected on marriage being like an improv act, the secret is saying "yes." I still believe that to be true. The willingness to step out, step forward, step together is such a powerful thing. In our efforts to show up for others we've also learned over the years to show up for each other. At thirteen years, our marriage has outlasted many of our friends and I truly believe the secret is that we have committed every.single.day. to show up for the other one. Even on days when we are tired, grieving, or struggling we have remained committed to doing life together.
Our hope, our prayer, is that the Lord would grant us many more years to serve Him, His people, and to show up for all of you. If anything good comes from us, know that it's Him.
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