A Day Worth Celebrating

I spent this past weekend celebrating my bride's birthday - one of the most celebration-worthy days on my calendar each year. Each 20th of April marks the day God made the world a better place by bringing her into it. Her birthday also gives me an annual reminder of how she continues to improve the world around her by the way she lives her life.

Of course I could write a voluminous tome if I chose to descibe everything I've come to appreciate about Amy in the 20 years I've known her, but since blogs aren't for tomes I'll restrict myself to two things about my wife that continue to impress me.

First, she stretches her mind. Amy's never had any aspirations to become a scholarly, academic type. Yet for as long as I've known her she's spent time and energy trying to better understand God, theology, herself, and the world around her. And it's paying off as her insight continues to grow and her perspective continues to broaden. I find this incredibly refreshing in a world of "whatever" postmodernism in which many people seem reluctant to do the hard work of learning and figuring life out, preferring instead to deny that there is anything to figure out. Though she doesn't see herself this way, when I look at her I see a great example of what I think every Christian should be in this regard.
Secondly, she faces her "internal demons." It has often been said that the hardest man for us to face as people is the man in the mirror. Yet the Christian life sometimes feels like an ongoing look into the mirror that God nudges us to take, as he points out areas in our lives that he is trying to make more like Jesus. Every one of us has such things that God tries to bring to our attention, but in my personal experience they are very hard to face, to own up to, and to let him change. Amy is more willing to do this in here own life than I often am, and she inspires me in this regard. I think that takes courage, and I'm proud of her for having it.

Add to all this the fact that she's engaging, talented, and a fox, and you can perhaps start to see why I think this day so worth celebrating. I've been known to say, "I may be biased, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong!" I think that applies here.

Happy birthday sweetie; I love you.



If you know Amy and would like to post something you appreciate about her here, she'll see it (I'll be sure she does!)