Perfect 7.

Our culture jokes about the "seven year itch" as the average year when a monogamous relationship (usually specifically a marriage) begins to decline in interest or love for each other.

In the Bible, the number 7 represents a wholeness or completion in God's plan... creation was completed after 7 days. In the 7th year, a Hebrew slave was to be freed having completed his service, and every 7th year there was a celebration. The 7th day of the week is set aside as God's sabbath, a day to rest and worship the Lord. There are also lots of symbolic sevens in Revelation.

Matt and I are celebrating 7 years of marriage today, and though we're certainly miles far from completion or wholeness (thank the Lord!) it does feel like a special number! No matter what number the anniversary, we never take for granted yet another year that God in his infinite love has allowed us to have together. Definitely no itching here!

Since for the past 3 years we've either been pregnant or had small kiddos (or both!) on our anniversaries, our celebrations are not the big, romantic occasions that some put pressure on anniversaries to be. In fact, we went out for dinner last year, and have only one single little photo of us to mark the occasion! It might be several years before we ever are able to spend our anniversary together in Paris again like we did on our 3rd... but each year that I think I can't love Matt any more than I already do, I find myself reaching our anniversary more thankful for him and more in love with him than ever.

If everything you can think to say about how much you love your spouse sounds like a cheesy romantic Hallmark card, I think something must be going right! And while our culture might tell us we're entering the boring old married stage of life, I'll take celebrating a wedding anniversary with the excitement of Kenna finishing potty training and Finn starting to crawl over some big expensive gift any day. I'm so thankful for God to have chosen Matt Brogli for me, and so thankful that God loved us enough to give us the gift of each other.

We are a triangle; in wanting to be closer to God, we're moving closer to each other as a result. Most folks have heard Proverbs 31 that describes the kind of wife I want to be: "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."

But you can't read that and then not check out Proverbs 20: "Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who can find? The righteous man leads a blameless life; blessed are his children after him."

So to my best friend, my love, my partner in crime, my backup, my trickster, and my favorite... you're pretty much the best ever. Happy anniversary. i love you!

For more pictures, here are posts about our 4th anniversary, 5th anniversary, and our 6th anniversary!