Anniversary Thoughts

“Don says he’ll love you if you’ll love him”, a nine year old camper was saying to me. I let out a little laugh as I listened to ten little girls all trying to convince me that Don had sent them to give me a message.

The year was 1961. I had just graduated from high school and was spending a week as a counselor for kids at church camp. Don was in the military at a base about 40 miles from my hometown and had taken a week off to also be a counselor at the church camp. The whole week my girls and Don’s boys did everything they could to get us together. Don and I both were being entertained with these little match makers.

From the time I was a young girl, my mother had been praying about the boys her three girls would some day marry. I too wanted God’s best for me but I didn’t expect the “best” would be from Washington State, completely across the United States from where I had lived my whole life.

The week at camp was wonderful. The more I was around Don, the more my heart grew fonder. On Wednesday night Don preached and the altar was filled with boys and girls seeking God. I felt at home on my knees beside Don praying with the kids.

The last day of camp, after the last child had boarded his bus, Don and I sat on the camp porch and talked for hours. By the time we left for our separate towns, we knew God had something special planned for us and we were ready to begin dating and growing in the Lord together. Eleven months later we were married. God had used the most unlikely “cupids” at kid’s camp to help perform His will in our lives.

Today would be our 47th anniversary. Don loved celebrating our anniversaries and every year we took three or four days around Memorial Day to celebrate and explore some new location in Washington State. I always miss him a little more at this time of the year.

I’m very grateful for the 39 ½ years we had to build wonderful memories which will live on in my heart forever. I’m thankful for a praying mom, and a praying grandmother before her, that taught me to “Delight myself in the Lord and He would give me the desires of my heart.” Psalm 27:4 (my translation) Most of all I am grateful to the Lord for using nine and ten year old campers to help me meet the LOVE of my life. “Yes, my dear little camper, tell Don I will love him - forever.”