My husband and I recently celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary on the beautiful island of Kauai. While attending St. Raphael’s Church, the pastor asked if anyone was celebrating a wedding anniversary. We said we were, and he called us to the front of the church and gave us the most beautiful blessing. I think it is a great reminder of what we should strive for in marriage:

Almighty and ever living God, continue to bless this couple and help them grow in truth that marriage is not merely living for each other but joining hands to serve you. May they have a great spiritual purpose in life. May they not expect perfection in each other, for perfection belongs only to you. May they minimize each other’s weaknesses and be swift to praise and magnify each other’s strengths. May they always see each other through love’s kind and patient eyes.

May God bless your lives together. May you have enough tears to keep you tender, enough hurts to keep you human, enough failures to keep you tightly clutching God’s hand, and enough blessings to affirm that you are indeed God’s children. May you never take each other for granted but always experience that breathless wonder that exclaims, “Out of this entire world, you have chosen me.”

May your life together be such that at the end of life you will be found then as now – still hand in hand, still thanking God for each other, still faithful servants of our Heavenly Father – until at last one shall lay the other into the arms of God.