Our 18 Year Anniversary

Wedding 1

On this day 18 years ago, my wife and I got married!  Happy Anniversary honey!  We have been through it all together!  It is so awesome to be raising our kids together and I am so thankful for all that God has done!  I love you with all my heart!

We got married June 23, 2001 down in Denver at the historic Whatley Chapel on a beautiful Saturday morning in front of our friends and family.  Our friend, who is now a Pastor here in Colorado, performed the service for us.  Watching my wife walk down the aisle was a beautiful moment in time that I will never forget!

Wedding 2

After 18 years of marriage, we have had our share of challenging days.  Marriage is not easy.  It is a lifetime commitment to love each other under God’s holy covenant between a man and a woman!  It takes all of your heart and your very being to love someone.  Believe me, you will need God’s help!  Through all the trying times, we must forgive and keep loving each other!  One thing I have learned that is so very true is that you will grow closer to each other when you both grow closer to God.  Jesus is the reason my wife and I have a thriving marriage full of love!  Jesus is the reason we became one and Jesus is the reason we will stay one forever!

Wedding 3

Through our marriage, the Lord has never let me lose sight of one particular verse.  It is a verse that all husbands should remember.  I have not been perfect in loving my wife this way, but this verse burns brightly in my heart and I pray and seek to love my wife this way for the rest of our days.

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…”

Ephesians 5:25

Wow!  That is incredible!  Paul exhorts us to love our wives just as Christ loves His church!  When we got married, my wife was 20 and I was 22.  That was a huge responsibility to me and I took it very seriously, and I still do!  In order for me to love my wife as Jesus loves the church, I need to love and follow Jesus with all of my heart!  It is only through Jesus that I can love my wife the way God wants me to love her.  It is by the power of His Holy Spirit that I can give myself up for her and love her like He does!

Just before verse 25, Paul also exhorts women to recognize the God ordained leadership responsibility of their husbands.  Keep in mind when reading these verses, that a woman will naturally want to submit to her husband’s leadership if he is loving her as Christ loved the church.  The Word does not say a man has the right to be abusive in his leadership.  Just remember that.

“Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”

Ephesians 5:22-24

This is a huge responsibility for the husband!  It is not a position of power and authority to be lorded over the wife.  It is a position of humility and love to serve our wives, protect them, and lead them as Jesus does!  Here is that Scripture again with the verses that come after it.

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.  He who loves his wife loves himself.  After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church–for we are members of his body.  “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”  This is a profound mystery–but I am talking about Christ and the church.  However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”

Ephesians 5:25-33

Men, when you love your wife like Jesus does, the respect will follow!  That responsibility is yours, not hers.  Salvation is a free gift of God through faith in Jesus.  Respect has to be earned!  Love your wife by washing her with the Word of God.  Love your wife by encouraging her relationship with Jesus and leading her to Him in everything you do!  Love your wife by laying down your life for her and serving her in love!

Jesus set a powerful example for us of how we should love our wives.  May we never forget that!  If you want a successful marriage folks, love each other like the Bible says to love each other!  That is how my wife and I have made it 18 years and we are still looking forward to many more as we spend our lives together in the Lord!

“Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails…”

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love.”

1 Corinthians 13:13

It’s all about Jesus and loving like He loves us!

Grace and peace to you all!

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Author: Ryan Callahan

Hello, and welcome to my site! I am an independent Christian author (One Man's Very Strange Supernatural Life), blogger, and evangelist for Jesus. My main goal with this blog is to help people come to know Jesus, help people understand the Bible, and to minister to a lost and hurting world. This site is about hope, new beginnings, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love! I'm glad you are here, God bless you! Copyright © 2024 Ryan Callahan. All rights reserved.

87 thoughts on “Our 18 Year Anniversary”

  7. Happy Anniversary to you and your beautiful wife!May you have many more to come! You have a precious family! And I’m so thankful you have found the right common denominator of a wonderful marriage—Jesus as the firm foundation! 🙌

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  9. Awesome post, Ryan. Our vows are spoken in just a few short minutes but with overflowing love for one another and then we begin our lifetime together. You bring the truth to light in reminding us that in our married life together, it is a continued blessing to grow together in God, which helps to make our marriage a strong and happy one. We need Jesus in our life as a couple and a family. Amen!
    “Congratulations” to you both on 18 years and have a happy anniversary today! I’m glad you shared your wedding pictures, fun to remember, it was such a beautiful wedding. Maybe tomorrow you can share some of your Hawaiian honeymoon photos!
    Love you two, and those grandkiddies of ours!

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  13. i will kind of take you to task on the respect must be earned.

    the bible gives clear instruction to wives that is NOT dependent upon how her husband behaves or acts or even how he loves her.

    wives are to submit to their husbands.
    wives are to respect their husbands.
    period.

    there is not an “IF” … ‘then’ … in there.

    we do not submit IF he ________.
    we do not respect IF he ________.

    we are to respect our husbands. period.
    we are to submit to our husbands. period.

    i think the church has really blurred this to the point women believe they run the show … and that women believe they get to decide when their husband DESERVES to be submitted to and when he DESERVES respect.

    God never worded it that way.

    our command is not based on what he deserves. it’s based on obeying Christ.

    we have to determine whom we fear most … God, or man.

    if we fear God, we honor and obey God by honoring and obeying His commands to us. and His command to wives are to respect our husbands and to submit to our husbands. period.

    if we go back to Genesis 3:16 To the woman he said,

    “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
    with painful labor you will give birth to children.
    Your desire will be for your husband,
    and he will rule over you.”

    that is SOOO not popular or politically correct in our culture. there are cries of “abuse!” “abuse!”

    in those instances of *real* abuse, God does give us a safe place in 1 Corinthians 7:10 To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. 11 But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.

    and that is even more unpopular than respect and submission.

    i also refer people to read the book of 1 Peter without any chapter or verse markings and pray over what God is teaching.

    – – –

    to the husbands, God makes is clear husbands are to rule over their wives. when a husband does not take the authority God gives him and exercise it properly in his home, it causes all kinds of grief.

    also … why did God command husbands to love their wives? to make her holy. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

    that takes discipline and boundaries … and sometimes she won’t like it. but a Christian wife is called to submit to her husband and respect him even when she doesn’t like it.

    AND … husbands aren’t perfect and they make mistakes … but a Christian wife is called to submit to her husband and respect him even when he makes mistakes.

    – – –

    our commands from God as husbands and wives are not “IF” – “THEN” commands. they are direct commands. period.

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    1. Whoa, okay, I think you misunderstand me. My point was not an if then thing. My point was that a man should do the right thing and not abuse his leadership role and if he loves like Jesus, the wife will be at peace and respect will naturally follow. Of course a wife should love and respect her husband even when he fails. My point about respect being earned, which I believe in all my relationships with people, is that a husband should act in a way that the respect from his wife is true respect based on treating her right. I was just encouraging men that if they want real respect from their wife, then love like Christ. I definitely believe that respect is earned, whether it was growing up playing sports or being a leader in Campus Crusade, I had to earn respect. How we treat people matters. I never said a man being the head of the wife was abuse, so relax with all that. You have been reading my blog for a while and you should know by now that I don’t have any trouble preaching any of the hard verses, so not sure what you’re talking about with all that. Has nothing to do with me. That’s not what I was saying in my post about our 18 year anniversary. I love my wife and treat her with love and respect and she loves and respects me. Grace and peace.

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      1. oops – i did NOT mean this to be directed personally to you! i am SO sorry it came across that way!

        i simply meant to address a misconception of scripture that subtly gives wives an ‘excuse’ to not do what the bible instructs … i certainly did NOT mean this to be personal, and i am deeply sorry it came across this way.

        My point was that a man should do the right thing and not abuse his leadership role and if he loves like Jesus, the wife will be at peace and respect will naturally follow.

        i am so deeply grateful this is true in your marriage. unfortunately, it is not true in all marriages 😦 … i wish it were. even christian marriages. i know many men who loved their wives like this, but she still wandered to another man 😦 … hence why, imo, God gives separate instructions to husbands and wives … b/c we each need it.

        and, sadly, there are men out there who do not love their wives this way, and we wives must choose to submit to and respect them anyway – VERY hard to do … and i lived it for twenty years with my first husband, so i know 😦 .

        you and your wife and your marriage and your family are truly a gift and blessing. i wish more were like you and yours!!!

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  20. Happy Anniversary! It’s really felt good to see a couple being together for a such a long time; and hopefully until the end. Best Wishes 🙂

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