On September 24, 2008, our 20th wedding anniversary, we went to this wonderful Bed and Breakfast in Hastings, had a nice dinner in town and a great night together.
The next morning, Joy and I shared breakfast on the porch, and we lingered over the days’ newspaper. There was terrible news about the economy, and frankly it was terrifying. Work wasn’t pouring in for me, and we were looking at a uncertain future. Just like everyone else.
We were also feeling sad that so many marriages we thought to be rock-solid were ending. Joy and I had vowed this would never happen to us. But hadn’t they? We ate our meals and drank our coffee, and talked about the solid and the shaky things in life.
Later, as we were packing our bags to leave, I set to the job of signing the journal which was sitting on the table. This is a sacred bed and breakfast ritual, that the blissful couple leave a romantic paragraph or two about their time, the breakfast, the hosts. When I began, I was thinking about the things I’d read in the paper, and the conversation at breakfast. This is what I wrote.
Do marriages still survive? Rock-solid matrimonies seem to be falling as fast as mortgage brokers these days. No presidential bail-outs, no act of Congress to Save the Marriage. Yet after 20 years, we have disproved the predictions of pundits who have labeled marriage as doomed to fail.
Our interest rates rise with the years. We appreciate more and more as time goes by. Our investment is safe, because its treasure is held in heaven; we hold a piece of the Rock of Ages. Our market has its ups and downs, to be sure, but the arrow ultimately goes up. We have two off-shoots of our company (ages 10 and 7) and they have started off solidly and their prospects are good.
Don’t let anyone convince you it’s time to bail. Hold on to your investment, stick with the fundamentals, ride out the storms. Ask for help from your Advisor.
God bless your futures.
Mike and Joy
September 25, 2008
At a restaurant in Hastings, MN
My journal entry at the B&B
Writing it Down 
You were exactly one block from my house . . .
By: Kelli Tatum on January 18, 2010
at 8:50 pm
You make me smile.
Thanks for sharing your soul.
By: Barry Ross Rinehart on January 19, 2010
at 6:54 pm
Thanks for sharing this… great advice with wonderful “word pictures!”
I wonder… when we think of “rock solid”… is our life or marriage built on the solid “rock” of Jesus Christ and an ongoing, living faith in Him… or is it based on what “looks like rock” on the outside to ourselves and others but is really based on the “sand” of having faith only in ourselves or our spouse or others, apart from God? I wonder.
By: Linda Eggleston on January 22, 2010
at 1:39 pm
What beautiful people in that picture! The two of us know all too well how right you are. Sometimes it seems as though that Rock is precariously placed on top of Quicksand! At times the earth quakes and the Rock starts sinking with you sitting on top! You worry and stew about what might happen if the earth quakes too much! But all we need is the faith that Christ hopes we will have in him to hold us rock steady!
You are the rock being held steady Michael. Thanks to your faith and your rock solid investment in the Almighty. Bless you for showing the rest of us how to stay afloat!!!
34yrs & counting! J.
By: Joel Hill on July 1, 2010
at 9:00 pm