He is patient, kind, and gentle.

He does not brag or boast, so I’m going to do it for him.

Today is his birthday. He is thirty-eight years old. Wink wink.

He takes pride in doing the dishes, folding the towels, and vacuuming up the hair of our pets.

He makes our morning coffee and then sits on the heating pad to ease his stiff and achy back.

He humors me by doing whatever exercise I might be into at the moment, despite his shoulders working against him. Running his own telecom business and the subsequent years of pulling wire and cable, working much of that time with his hands and arms over his head, finagling in hot attics and musty crawl spaces, will wear a body out.

Before that, he worked as a diesel mechanic both in his own shop and in the logging woods, keeping the trucks and loaders running.

He’s driven eighteen-wheelers through downtown Atlanta. Driving through there in a regular car sometimes requires an act of God to make it through, much less in a semi truck.

During his senior year of high school, back in the 80s, he was the Alabama state champion in the VICA diesel competition.

Whoops. He might be a little older than thirty-eight after all.

He’s also coached baseball and softball. There is a pitching machine and a batting cage in the back of our shop, and there is a lineup from March 2020, when the season ended so abruptly, still posted on the pressboard backstop.

He’s coached little league teams all the way through varsity. Kids past and present know him and greet him with a smile, whether at stores, at church, or at restaurants. Dust-covered trophies from tournaments line a shelf in the shop, next to the tools that he uses to build or to repair whatever he or his family might need.

He is one of the smartest people I know. There is nothing he can’t figure out. He is a Jack-of-all-trades, master of all, especially when it comes to carpentry, fixing motors or machines, hunting and fishing, wiring a house, laying flooring, or moving dirt. If the world as we know it ever comes to an end, you will want people like him around. “A Country Boy Can Survive” has nothing on Sweet Husband’s survival and self-sufficiency skills.

But he is all that, plus the famous verses from I Corinthians 13:4-7. We read them often, but it’s rare to see all those qualities in one person:

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

We’ve all heard of Proverbs 31 women, but I’m here to tell you that it’s a lot easier to be a Proverbs 31 woman when you’ve got a I Corinthians 13 man.

He reads and studies the Bible, along with books to aid his understanding. He listens to sermons on the radio while traveling from job to job during the workday.

He may be a quiet man, but if you know him, you know his actions speak volumes. You know his heart for serving others.

If you ever have the chance to be around him for any length of time, you will know you’ve met one of the most God-fearing and faithful men who actually lives out the commandments of Scripture.

We celebrated our third anniversary in January after dating for nine years. After my first marriage ended in a soul-hollowing divorce, I got to the point where I told God that if He wanted me to marry again, He would have to do the work. 

I was done. He would have to drop the man off at my door.

Sweet Husband wasn’t on my radar at all, but I know what I had prayed.

And then he showed up. 

Silver linings and sweet husbands are sometimes one and the same, especially when you let God do the work.

Coco the dog agrees. She’s usually resting at his feet on the recliner, instead of next to me on the couch.

She probably thinks she’s got a great deal. But I hate to tell her:

She can’t make him a birthday cake. I’ve got that one covered.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Husband. I love you.