Family Week is a good time to go public with some facts about a fantastic wife. I’ve been saying these things in private recently—notes for her left here and there around the house. But this is a time for celebration. Mother’s Day is around the corner. Family Week is for rekindling new hope at home, and new hope for the significance of God-ordained singleness in the family of God.

So let me give you a glimpse into the heart of one grateful husband. Maybe it will stir you up to make your own list for somebody special. I’ll put it in the form of an open letter to the lady of my life.

Dear Noël!

Would you mind if I told you again in public a fraction of the things I like about you? What comes to mind my mind in these days is

• your steady commitment to our Sovereign Lord.
• your rock solid faithfulness to me.
• your effort to make special times for the family.
• your care for the boys and the time you take to read to them and give them creative spots of joy (not to mention the food prepared, and house cleaned, and clothes bought and mended and washed, and endless trips and assistance).
• your intelligence and quick-wittedness and creativity.
• your freedom from gossip and scuttle curiosity.
• your laugh and sense of humor.
• your thoughtful interaction on troubling issues.
• the balance and equilibrium of your counsel in trying situations.
• your heart for service in the Shepherd’s Class and the Hearing Impaired ministry.
• your support in standing by me after the Sunday services.
• your thick skin and smooth feathers when I am criticized.
• your freedom from anxiety and fretting amid stress and uncertainties.
• your natural attractiveness and delightful simplicity.
• your deeply satisfying gift of sexual relations.

To these I might add your gracious humility, which assures me that you will be as modest after reading this as you were before.

Affectionately,

Pastor John