I will always remember the words of my late dad one morning when I walked in the door after a night of carousing, just as he was leaving for work. “Son, the greatest thing that ever happened to me was when I married your mother.” Being the loving and wise dad that he was, he knew I was wasting my life in pursuit of who knows what? I certainly didn’t, and like the Prodigal Son I was squandering my life, living an ungodly lifestyle. My parents were together as a husband and wife for nearly 60 years before the death of my mother. Together, like all married couples, they experienced times of joy, sorrow, trials and tribulations. But, the point my Dad was trying to make with me, his cavorting son, was that the married life he had with my mother was truly a blessing from God. Being married to her was the steadying compass in his life as they loved and supported each other, no matter what they faced. He summed it up succinctly by saying, "Son, the greatest thing that ever happened to me was when I married your mother.” This was in 1964, just a few months before I met the young woman I fell in love with and married in June of 1966, Francine Apostolos. For the next 49 years together, before her death in 2015, as my wife, she made the words my dad had told me earlier come true for me. As I sit here today, writing this, remembering my dad’s words I can only say, “Dad, how correct and wise your words were.”

God, in his infinite wisdom knew that man being alone was not good. Genesis 2:18 reads: “And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Then just four verses later God created that helper, a woman. Genesis 2:22-24; “Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23. The man said. “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man.” 24. “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.”

Dad, you sure had it right, and like it said in Proverbs 19:14, “Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.” And later on, Proverbs 30:18-19 truly exemplifies the simple words you told me, “There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: 19 “The way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a young woman.”

Dad, as you looked back on your years of being married to mom, while the four things mentioned in Proverbs 30:19 were not a part of your words of wisdom imparted upon me, but now as I think back on those words they were truly a part of what you described as “the greatest thing that ever happened to you was marrying mom.”

Earlier this month, we were blessed to witness the marriage of our Brother and Sister in Christ, Seth Bass to Stephanie Parker. Being held outdoors, the weather was perfect, the setting beautiful and the joy and love they showed for each other was abundantly clear. To me, Seth and Stephanie personified Christ’s words found in Matthew 19:4-6, 4, “Haven’t you read, He replied, that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female? 5. And said, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh? 6. So they are no longer two, but one flesh, therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”  Seth and Stephanie, at the moment they sealed their nuptials with a kiss, began their journey in life together, happy and joyous, unafraid and undaunted by what may lay ahead for them. Whatever that is there isn’t anything they can’t overcome together as one joined together by God and his blessings upon them.

Additionally, the newlywed couple (Seth and Stephanie) is blessed to have loving parents and grandparents that can give them spiritual advice and comfort when needed. Also, there are many young couples that belong to the Lord’s church at Mount Baker congregation that are examples worthy of seeking advice from if the need is felt. There will be many circumstances that you will be confronted by, many of which, only they can work out together.

Being the age I am, I feel very emotionally attached to newly married couples because I have been blessed by God and like my dad told me many years ago, “Son, the greatest thing that ever happened to me was when I married your mother.”

Thanks Dad! I agree and I thank God for your wisdom and simple words of advice. You were right, and marrying Francine was the best thing that ever happened to me. And in looking back on my life, my marriage and having children could only be over-shadowed by repenting of my sins and being accepted back into the Lord’s fold.

(My parents, Arthur and Leona Myers, were loving and faithful members of the Lord’s Church until they died.)