In my office, I used to keep copies of a book entitled, “The Cross-Cultural Marriage.” Beth was from the States … Cooper was from South Africa, I made them read the book. Earl grew up on the Navajo reservation, Katy in middle-class suburbia, that book was there first assignment. But the longer I did premarital counseling, the more I realized every couple needed the book. Even when a bride and groom come from very similar demographics they are, to some degree, from different planets. Sometimes it’s the next planet over, sometimes another galaxy … but every marriage starts off as a cross-cultural experience.Though close in age, Sue and I were from different generations. My parents were closer to the age of her grandparents. I came with a different and baffling vocabulary. I would say, “The leftovers are in the icebox,” and she needed to know “Which part?” I wanted something from the “cubby hole” but she could only find it in the “glove box.” She’d never heard of getting a “sticker” in your foot or suffering from an “interned hair.” I’d used “cream rinse” my entire life and suddenly it was “conditioner.” My language also came sprinkled with a few words of German slang, like referring to all small flying insects as “fliegers.” Despite those and other more serious differences, we have managed to survive … and thrive in marriage. Tomorrow, August 5th we celebrate thirty years.
Neither of us can believe it. We don’t even feel that old! We have closed the distance between our cultures and God has truly made us two … one. I feel as if we’ve been together since childhood. I have a difficult time remembering life before Sue and a harder time imagining life without her. Proverbs is right, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord.” And … “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.” Proverbs 18:22; 31:10-12.
Praising God for the favor He pours into my life through Sue!
