I keep seeing these pictures on Pinterest. Pictures of grandmothers, mothers, and daughters sporting diamond rings. Truthfully, it makes me a little jealous. My grandmother and I are not close, nor would I want to replicate her marriage. From all I've ever known, my grandfather (these are both paternal) was a very bad man who did bad things. My maternal grandparents died when I was very young. My own parents divorced when I was young, and so I haven't seen a diamond ring on my mother's finger for a very long time. And my wedding ring has no diamonds. I'm ashamed to admit that my cultural saturation is still so high that at times, I would like to have a diamond ring of my own. Which is absolutely ridiculous. I love my wedding ring. It's simple, it's enduring, and it didn't cost thousands of dollars more than it should have so I can have a rock to display to my friends and a status symbol to put on the internet.
But it also kindles a desire in me to start a legacy. A legacy of enduring marriages of unwavering faithfulness, of love grown and cultivated rather than fallen into and faded, of God centered marriages of growth and struggle and selflessness and service. Someday, though Pinterest will probably not be around by the time I'm a grandmother, or if it is, will exist across an entire wall and be brought up by thinking about it and we'll post memories instead of snapshots, I would like to have a picture of a legacy that Christ began in Anthem and I.
I pray that my daughter(s) (if we are so blessed) would be blessed with men like Anthem. I can't wait to figure out how to tell them that I didn't just marry Anthem for me, I married him for them. I pray for my son(s) (if we are so blessed) to grow up to be like Anthem. And honestly, I want my daughter(s) (again, if we are so blessed) to be like Anthem. I pray for all of us, all the time. Because legacies are built, they are not montaged. And there are many, many things that will try and stop us. They cannot. For they are of the world, and Christ has overcome the world, and we are in Christ.
Anyway, someday I want a picture. Three hands that each have a different ring that expresses their love, their commitment, their marriage, their relationship. And honestly, I pray that I don't completely understand the marriages, or relationships. For if I did, then they would not be so entirely their own.
I cannot deny that my heart lusts after shiney rocks, the value of which is so inflated it is difficult to comprehend in a rational mind. But I can work to transform that desire and channel it into something of much more value: a legacy of lustrous marriages.
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