An Open letter to Kathy

This is an open letter to my wife on our 15th wedding anniversay. She means more to me than words can say…

Dear Kathy,

On our 15th wedding anniversary, I find that today is an example like so many days in the last 15 years that show an inexplicable love and devotion that I neither deserve nor understand. But, nonetheless, it’s this relationship with you that I treasure more than almost anything in my world.
For the last 15 years I have been a youth pastor and/or camp speaker with a July wedding anniversary. So, only once or twice in our years together have we actually spent these precious camp dates together. When we did, they were days shared with others, like today.
Today, for our 15th wedding anniversary you drove yourself and our boys all the way to central Texas to spend 3 days with me and about 700 third through sixth graders. Then on this big day you celebrated by:

• getting up early
• packing for two boys, a husband and yourself
• doing most of the heavy lifting because my head was hurting again
• listening to me preach for the 1 billionth time
• working the product table and making change out of campers wet lake water money
• driving a second car 8.5 hours home
• making your anniversary dinner a burger, fries and peanut buster parfait from Dairy Queen at a truck stop in nowhere Oklahoma
• finally, making the late night unload at the church of all the tech equipment and junk we’d been hauling

Most impressive of all Mrs. Addis was the fact that everytime I saw you today you smiled and hugged and looked for a kiss. Even though many others would whine and complain about their lot in life, you showed joy and love.
It was a day you could rightfully claim as your own, even if you had given up so many others. Surely, the 15th should be special. But, you put your God, your husband and the cause before yourself.
You’ve never looked more beautiful to me.
You made me feel loved, significant and like you were really my partner in the work. Like on so many other days I saw Genesis 2:18 come to life in your eyes, hands and feet today: The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
I know you’d never let me, but I’d love to point at you as a way for others to see what a great Christian wife is like.

You are loving at all times, but still tell me what I need to hear.
You are strong in the face of difficulty, but bend easily to meet the needs of our family and circumstances
You are submissive to God to the point of sacrifice for me and your boys, but relentless in your passion for life.

Kathy, you have joked about these “unachievable standards” over the years, but tonight as our 15th anniversary rolls into the 1st day toward our 16th year, I ascribe these verses to you:

Proversb 31:10 A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
11 Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.
12 She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Pr 31:10-12). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Kathy, I love you more today than I did before. You are the greatest guide my boys could ever have been given. You are the companion of a lifetime.

I love you, need you, and celebrate you.

Can’t wait for the next 15…

More of Him and less of me,

Andy