Happy Birthday, Babe!

“One of the greatest gifts that my wife has ever given me is being different from me. The same things I once wished were different are the things that I celebrate now.” – Mark Schultz

A middle-class suburbanite boy from South Jersey who loves sports, politics, Frank Sinatra, and American history walks into a small country church in south-central Pennsylvania and spots a pretty girl, five years his junior, who plays the piano, and loves country music and southern gospel. He asks a common friend about her, gets up the courage to start a conversation, and manages to sit next to her at a rehearsal dinner that evening.

The following day, despite having a bad cold and still recovering from having his wisdom teeth removed the week before, he again chats her up at the wedding reception and doesn’t leave until he gets her phone number. A few days later, he calls to ask her out, but she declines his offer to take her to an outdoor Christian musical festival. Instead, they settle on a double date at Hershey Park, which is halfway between their respective homes.

Their courtship features daily correspondence, weekly phone calls, and 400-mile roundtrips every other weekend in his Honda Civic hatchback. Five months later, they are engaged… and seven months after that, they are married in the same country church where they met a year earlier, almost to the day.

She is the daughter of a contractor who can build or fix anything. He was raised by a father who had the plumber, the electrician, and the carpenter on speed dial. She is a saver, and he is a spender. He is opinionated and outspoken… to a fault. She, on the other hand, is as easy-going and non-confrontational as they come.

And yet, despite their many differences, the marriage works. They find common ground in shared interests such as camping, reading, and starting a family. He learns to like both country and gospel music, but she never warms up to Ol’ Blue Eyes. However, she allows him to play golf and supports him as he pursues God’s call to start America’s first athletic prison ministry. Over the next 30 years, they live paycheck to paycheck, trusting God to supply their needs as faith-based missionaries.

Today, their marriage has lasted 38 years and counting, and God has blessed them with three children and six grandkids. Sunday, she celebrates a birthday, but she’ll never catch up to her older husband.

Happy Birthday, Babe! I’m more in love with you today than I was the day I first laid eyes on you… or when we went on our first date… or kissed for the first time. Thanks for 38 incredible years full of ups, downs, and countless adventures.

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24 (NKJV)

“An excellent wife is the crown of her husband.” Proverbs 12:4 (NKJV)

“He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the LORD.” Proverbs 18:22 (NKJV)

“Two are better than one… and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:9a & 12b (NKJV)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President