Garments of Joy!


You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy.
Psalm 30:11

I worship a God who digs the impossible instead of one who is guided by statistics. After 15 years of marriage, with a past of addiction, abuse, anger, depression, and loneliness I am happy to say that we as a married couple are in a season of joyful dancing. God has restored our brokenness as individuals as well as a couple.

What that looks like today is that we yearn to be in the presents of each other’s silence. We long for the time we spend together reading and praying before the day ever starts and for our time together as the day ends.

We are in a season of preparation; OK, we will not be empty nesters for at least possibly another decade. However, it is never too soon to practice what we want to perfect and that is enjoying being with one another without the children.

With one child grown and on her own and two left to raise, we are now living this motto. “Let them go so they can grow.” So, every Thursday evening between 5:30 and 8:30PM they are both involved in their youth group. Letting them go so they can grow and serve the Lord does have its blessings.

Here we were, left alone, a quiet house with no interruption. My husband just looked at me and said “I don’t care what we do, I am just happy to be with you” and the feeling was mutual. We spent time searching for a new laptop for me and dreaming about the ministry that we have been led to serve in together. We laughed, talked, and enjoyed one another as we practiced and prepared for the day when true empty nesting would be our theme.
We eventually ended up on the front porch with a cold drink, ready to greet those who walked by and dropped in. We have learned to be still together and our love for each other grows out of being OK in the silence.

With just an hour left to ourselves, we took advantage of the time and went inside to participate in a little glorifying of the Lord.



The first ten years of our marriage was about mourning, about loss and about growing up. I can truly say that as I woke up and greeted the day, there was a joyful dance deep in my soul from the realization that The God of this universe has clothed us with joy. He has turned our mourning into dancing…

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful notion - practicing for your time as empty-nesters. We so easily lose sight of "life after children" but our spouses are the one's we made a vow to. They should be our companions, our confidants, our completion - for better or for worse. It makes me think twice about how I treat mine.

Thanks for sharing your blessing!

Rachel Olsen said...

BEAUTIFUL!

May God bless your marraige, my friend.