Hi everyone. Thank you all very much for being here with us
tonight to celebrate Verity’s 30th [wedding]. It’s been far too long
since we have caught up with many of you and it is especially nice to be able
to do so tonight.
Well a couple of days ago I happened to mention in passing
to Vep that I wasn’t going to do a speech at her party, I was just going to say
thank you to everyone for coming and get everyone to sing happy birthday and
that would be it. But Vep said, ‘no – you have to do a proper speech – it’s my
birthday’. ‘Well, what do you want me to say,’ I said. And Vep said, ‘I’m not
going to tell you what to say – but I will tell you the things you’re NOT
allowed to say’
‘Scrap booking – you’re not allowed to make any jokes about
me and scrap booking,’ she said.
Now let be just make a point. I think Vep is a great scrap
booker. She is very skilled at it. I just think it is a ridiculous pass time.
Next she said, ‘You’re not allowed to mention the Hamilton
bum.’
Now there’s a select few here who will know what that is but
if you haven’t heard of the Hamilton bum before, don’t ask me later ‘cause I’m
not allowed to talk about it.
Next Vep said to me, ‘You’re not allowed to say I’m ‘nice’.
‘But you are nice’, I replied.,..
‘But you always use the word ‘nice’’ she said.
‘Well it’s a nice word!’ I answered.
‘Try using something other than ‘nice’, try expanding your
vocabulary a little.’ Vep suggested.
So with that in mind I would like to say to my darling wife
on her birthday, Vep, you have an amazing gift at scrapbooking, you don’t have
a big butt and you are splendidly ambidextrous…..
….but that wasn’t really going to be saying enough for Vep’s
30th birthday speech was it?
I know what I’ll do, I thought to myself. I’ll do what my
friend Greg tells me to do whenever I don’t know the answer to something. Greg?
Google it.
So I did a search for pre-prepared 30th birthday
speeches.
Here’s a word of warning for anyone who has to do a speech
and thinks to themselves, ‘It’s ok, I’ll just google it’ … It doesn’t work. The
interweb was almost entirely unhelpful. Except for one suggestion on one page that
I came across which said, ‘Talk about the first time you met the person.’
Now, I have a really bad memory. I mean, it’s terrible. Just
ask Vep. I mean, I can remember really important stuff, but I just have trouble
with other things – like remembering to put my clothes away after me,
remembering to load or unload the dishwasher, remembering the precise date of
our wedding anniversary.
But, do you know what? I CAN remember the very first time I
saw Verity.
I was in 2nd grade at The Oaks Public School, in
Mrs. Steel’s class. So it must have been about 1984.
And I must have had a seat fairly close to the window
because I remember one day a little girl, with a friendly smile, a dark brown
bob haircut and a back pack that was nearly as big as she was walking up t othe
classroom and up the classroom stairs. And I thought to myself. She’s quite
pretty. Verity Parker.
Well, it must have been a short time after that that I was
in the playground with my friend. I can’t remember what exactly we were talking
about, but I must have said something like, ‘well I can run faster than you can’
(which is very unlikely that I could have), and my friend replied, ‘well, you
love that new girl.’
To which I replied, ‘Do not’.
The thing is though, maybe I did. Even all those years ago
there was something special about Verity. Something remarkable that made her
stand out. She’s such a loveable person, isn’t she?
In the years that followed there were periods in which we
were friends, periods in which we were great friends, and there were periods in
which I thought she was my friend and she just thought I was incredibly
annoying…we’re in one of those periods now actually….
But eventually our friendship developed to the point where
we were great mates. We trusted each other with things we wouldn’t trust others
with. And then after school and a year or so of seeing each other at all, seeing
her again, Vep seemed to me even more loveable and lovely than she previously did.
We started going out. The story of how that occurred varies somewhat between
who you ask, but let me just say that Vep’s recollection is not the most
accurate one.
Vep is the love of my life. And I got thinking, ‘Why is
that?’ ‘Why is she just so loveable?’ ‘Why do I love her more than anyone else
on earth?’ ‘Why is it that I couldn’t live a moment without her?’
And it occurred to me that there are two reasons that far
outweigh the rest. Obviously there are plenty of smaller reasons – I mean she’s
smart, kind, funny, beautiful and so on and so forth, you know, the standard
specs.
And of course there’s plenty of other things too, but there
are two things that stand above everything else. Two things that, even more so
after nearly eight years of marriage – nearly nine years of marriage, really
make me think – wow – what is Vep doing with me?
And the first, and the greatest is, not that she’s an
absolutely amazing scrap booker, not that she has an amazing hair style, not
that she has hair at all! Not even that she is really, really good at making
babies.
No the most loveable thing about Vep for me is that she
loves the Lord Jesus with all her heart and might. She trusts Him as her Lord
and Saviour and she lives out her faith in Him, loving and serving others-
wanting them to come to a saving knowledge of Him too- being kind and generous,
caring for and loving her friends, family and other people that she doesn’t
even know even when we don’t deserve it. She truly shows the love of the Lord
God through the way she lives for others and loves them.
And this leads to the second most loveable thing about Vep
for me which is that she loves me. Vep knows me better than anyone else on
earth. She has seen my failings as a person, as a husband, as a father. She
sees me on my worst days-which far out number by best days. But despite this,
she chooses to love me- she loves me with a love that I never imagined was
possible – she shows me that by what she says and does.
And so Vep, thank you for being the person you are. Thank
you for your love for the Lord. Thank you for your love for me.
We thank you for your love for us. We love you. And we wish
you a very happy birthday.
Please reach for a glass – Happy Birthday Vep.
