Our Twentieth Anniversary

Celebrating our twentieth anniversary...

 by taking a few pictures at the entrance to our favorite park in town.

The arches were just too perfect!

At our wedding, the wedding arch we borrowed from Jonathan's Colorado church

and set up in my Pennsylvania church

had been decorated with fresh ferns picked that morning from the roadside by Kenneth Lefever and my sister Iva, and twined with some pink and white flowers.

 This time, it's Russian sage behind us--one of Colorado's best flowers for xeriscaping.

But we moved further on into the park, and Crystal patiently took a few more snaps with us looking at the ducks in the pond. (If you click on the photo below, it will enlarge, and you can see two ducks to my left.)

The easterner--and the westerner.

And God made them one.

 And out of that union came three wonderful sons 

and four beautiful daughters.

 And sometimes you have to choose to just be happy even if your closest relative (i.e. youngest daughter or whatever the case may be) is sour at you.

 You do not have to let somebody else's pouts, 

grouches,

complaints,

or criticisms

spoil your love, joy, happiness and contentment. 

You have the power to choose.

Because you will always have those days when the waste baskets overflow,

and so do the desks...

 And those days when your choice to help someone else results in boxes of extra stuff at your place to sort...

 and there are always piles of things waiting to be carried downstairs (or upstairs as the case may be)...

 and fly tapes that really do need to be changed, thanks to the neighbor's countless horses

(we won't say anything about our goats, steers and chickens)...

 and floors to mop, and never-ending other tasks that consume time and energy and emotion.

 So for a few moments, we pull out the wedding dress and iron it and 

take time for celebrating twenty years together!

 Because there will always be those people who will find reasons to find fault

when you are happy. 

But you can choose. 

You can still choose to be happy.

Because isn't that what brings most glory to the Lord?