38

Lord God, thank you so much
for the gift
of thirty-eight years of marriage,
and forty-one years together
with my bride and best friend.

Thank you for the love which grows more precious and for the bonds which grow closer each day. Thank you for all the happiness we've known together, the sorrows we have faced together, and for all the experiences of sunshine and of shadow through which we have come, up to today.

Thank you for the gift of children--and such children! And grandchildren--and such grandchildren! Thank you that our wedding was only the beginning of our joys, and that our devotion to each other and to you has grown with each passing year.

Graciously spare us to each other to go on walking through this life together, and grant that for us it may be true that the best is yet to be, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.