Today is my wife’s birthday! And it is completely APPROPRIATE that her birthday lands right in the middle of HERO WEEK! We met when I was 16 and she was 15. Our first date was to the 1983 Round-Up Dance at SH Rider High (see pic below) And while I cannot possibly do justice to the profound impact she has had on my life, I offer this….

Before I ever actually met her, I met her REPUTATION. She was the girl in High School who loved Jesus and loved others. She had friends in every group. Some were cowboys, “preppies”, “druggies”, jocks, “honor rollers” and “holy rollers”. Her key to all of these relationships was not that she changed with each group but that she was the same…every time. She caught some heat from her “church friends” for talking to the girls who smoked, the guys with pierced ears and the “death metal crowd”. But she thought that if Jesus would talk to them then maybe she should too…SHE HAS NOT CHANGED AT ALL IN THIS REGARD. You are just as likely to find her with a friend who is a believer with “it all together” as you are seeing her interacting with someone “far from God”. I love that about her…….. HERO!

Margie is COURAGEOUS. I have seen her in so many situations where she has had to be brave. From the death of her father to standing in front a crowd and teaching what no one else would…… she is a brave woman… HERO!

She gives me COURAGE. In my first church, I was the Min of Students/Music Minister. That’s right I led the singing for the 100 or so folks who showed up! (quit laughing) I was so nervous being in front of a “crowd” that every Sunday morning (first 6-8 months) about 5:30am I would wake up, go to the bathroom, barf my guts out then head to the the living room, sit in the dark and pray. She is the one who came in later…looked me in the eye and said “You can do this!”. She has done that 1000 times since then…….. HERO!

Margie is FIERCELY LOYAL to me. She is always on MY SIDE, always IN MY CORNER and always on my TEAM!! HERO!

Margie is DISCIPLINED. She is a runner….I mean a “marathon running, get up at 5:30am in the freezing cold and run 5 miles before she goes to church kind of runner”. I have learned to work through some very difficult times because of her example of discipline in running …and 100 other things….HERO!

Margie is an terrific MOM. She seems to know “what to do next” in parenting. She can tell when one of our kids acting out of pain or acting out of “rebellion”. Margie can LAUGH at HERSELF. You would think that someone as “freakishly talented” as she is would be “kinda snooty” but she is gracious to everyone she meets…. probably has ever met! ROLE MODEL!

She FORGIVES EASILY. Lets just say it is a good thing she has this quality. (nuff said) HERO!

Margie is the most INTUITIVE person that I know. She just knows things…things about parenting, things about people, things about which way to go etc…She is WISE. HERO!

Margie has close FRIENDS. She has close friends. I mean really close! Margie is georgeous! I mean seriously…who looks that good at “forty-t_ _ _ _” … um…er… her age?

Margie makes me BETTER… a better man, dad, husband and pastor. (Heck, I don’t eat out of a can, belch in public or weight 400 lbs because of her!!) She showed me how to “shake hands and look people in the eyes”, how to look for the person sitting alone and befriend them and how to “speak up” when no one else will. It is an understatement to say if God had not brought Margie to me I would be “lost” in life. (I’m not saying she is perfect, just perfect for me)

HERO!

RUTH 1:16 “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.