How do you know when you’re in love, when you’ve met the one that God intended for you … for life? It’s a scary prospect when you’re seeking your lifemate. Find the right person and you’re assured someone in whom you will always find happiness and joy, despite the trials this life brings. Find the wrong one and you’re just heaping coals on the burning fires of life’s trials.

This weekend, my girlfriend and I celebrate 18 years of marriage. 18 years of always having the person by my side who can make me smile, who can make me see the silver lining, who can keep me looking forward and not in reverse, who encourages me and loves on me, who takes care of me, who puts up with me. What a huge gift from God Lisa has been for me. And, as I journey through life, I realize more each year just how God meant her for me and for the life I have. Without her, I would be a heaving, sobbing mass of insecure, very worried jello.

It didn’t take me long to know that Lisa was the one for me for life. I’d never really felt so comfortable and connected to anyone before the way that I did with her. We were in high school at the time and, being young, I had no clue what I was in store for in life. And, of course, we never really know what the future will bring. But, now, looking back on our 18 years of marriage and seven years of togetherness before that, I see how Lisa was exactly the one for me … the one who God ordained for me and for my life.

Sweetie, I love you and thank God for you. You are the greatest and, each day, I am brought joy, happiness and hope from you … from our life together.