The most important blog you'll read in the next 5 minutes

No I'm not embarrassed that I'm reaching for the garter...
I'm embarrassed  that I thought it was a good idea to
highlight my hair.

Today is just another day for most of the world, but not for me and my family. 9 years ago today I married the luckiest girl in the world, no wait, I said that wrong… 9 years ago today I became the luckiest girl in the world when I married, no, that’s not right either. 9 years ago today I married my best friend and not only can I still tolerate her today, I am so desperately in love with her that it makes my head swim a little bit. We joke back and forth about which one of us married up and which one got the better end of the deal but in truth we both lucked out because our strengths and weaknesses offset each other and allow the whole to be so much more than the sum of its parts. The best thing about being a part of a healthy and Godly marriage is that not only are we strong where the other is weak, that strength coupled with the love we have for one another compels the struggling partner to grow in the areas they fall short. Marrying Hannah Beth has made me a much better man than I could have ever been alone.

There’s no soft or nice way to say this, so I’ll just be frank: I’m socially inept. My frankness often contributes to my ineptitude. I don’t get social cues. I either talk too much or too little. I talk about myself too much not because I genuinely believe that I am the most interesting topic but simply because I know more about myself than any other subject. I am me after all. My filter for appropriate topics is little more than chicken wire stapled to a wooden square. My sense of humor is so incredibly strange that most people can never tell what’s a joke and what’s a serious statement. I have the spiritual gift of sarcasm (see what I mean? Now you’re wondering). I once operated under the guise that my purpose in life was to enlighten all I encountered to the greater things in life by explaining all the ways they were less than enlightened. All these things are still true after Hannah has spent 9 years tempering me to be slightly more palatable to the world. Hannah has passed compliments along from others about how much I have changed over the past few years. I want you to understand that I have worked my tail off and it has been more challenging than I could have ever imagined to adapt and grow my personality and social awareness from absolutely idiotic to the relatively mediocre level it’s at now. As hard as it’s been for me, Hannah is the one who deserves all the credit. She’s the one who loved me when I was acting like a self-absorbed goober. She’s the one who explained why people didn’t like me and were so easily offended by the things I said and did. She’s the one who bore the brunt of my stubborn attempts to educate the rest of the world on how dumb they were. Through it all, she chose to love me in spite of myself and she broke through some very long-standing walls that I had built in my life.

I’ve never been big on celebrating days, Christmas (we should celebrate Christ’s birth all year long) Easter (same basic idea) birthdays (yay I’m older, now give me some money) or anniversaries (does another year mean I’m more committed than I was when I started?). Hannah has shown me that I’m a moron (in the most loving way imaginable). Although all those things may be true statements, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the entire truth. For example, Caleb is a boy. Completely true statement, but if my entire opinion of Caleb is based only on that fact I miss out on some incredible blessings by choosing to embrace more of the truth about who that little guy is. Hannah has shown me how to celebrate the days and occasions by living a life that honors them every day, but also by taking a season to put more effort into understanding, praising and celebrating the occasion.

With all that in mind, our anniversary is third each year in terms of important celebrations only behind Christmas and Easter. I love making a big deal about the fact that we are celebrating another year since we each become whole. I love letting people know that I’ve dedicated my life to loving an incredible woman and she has a kind enough heart to tolerate my juvenile efforts. I love that in a society where all things precious have become overshadowed by the shallow and ridiculous we have been blessed by God to shine in spite of all that would come against us and not simply survive, but thrive in our marriage and family. There is no Jeremy without Hannah because the Jeremy that people know today would not exist if it weren’t for her. Sure, I might still be here but I would be unrecognizable against the man I am today.

I am a goober. I married a goober. I’m often a fool. I married a woman often a fool. I’m far from perfect and I married a woman far from perfect, but I still believe I got the better end of the deal. Sometimes I feel like she deserves a drop kick to the gut from a midget wrestler, but as soon as I imagine it I laugh a little inside and I’m back to loving her recklessly. Join with me in celebrating something wonderful in our marriage. Not because I’m incredible and not because Hannah’s flawless, neither is true. Join with me in celebrating that God can take two broken helpless individuals and with His purpose and love bring them together into something amazing, something unstoppable, something inseparable. Join with me in celebrating my wife because in spite of herself, she’s abso-stinking-lutely amazing.