My Prime Rib

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I love Solomon. First of all, he was a hopeless romantic. Consider my favorite passage from the Song of Songs:

1 How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, you are beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are like doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down Mount Gilead.

2 Your teeth are white like newly sheared sheep just coming from their bath. Each one has a twin, and none of them is missing.

3 Your lips are like red silk thread, and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks behind your veil are like slices of a pomegranate.

4 Your neck is like David's tower, built with rows of stones. A thousand shields hang on its walls; each shield belongs to a strong soldier.

5 Your breasts are like two fawns, like twins of a gazelle, feeding among the lilies.

6 Until the day dawns and the shadows disappear, I will go to that mountain of myrrh and to that hill of incense.

7 My darling, everything about you is beautiful, and there is nothing at all wrong with you.

Solomon certainly loved him some Shulamite woman. Long neck and all. (After all, there is nothing wrong with her at all. And as a bonus, she has all of her teeth!)

But Solomon was also the wisest guy who ever lived. Combine the two and you have someone who really knows his stuff when it comes to romantic love. I also love the fact that Solomon was carnivorous!

Consider what he wrote in Proverbs 15:17;

A bowl of vegetables with someone you love is better than steak with someone you hate. (NLT)

Solomon knew that a vegetarian diet was lame-o. But he would rather eat his peas with Mrs. Solomon than have a Porterhouse with a business associate. Listen again, this time from the CEV;

A simple meal with love is better than a feast where there is hatred.

Solomon and I share something else in common. (I’ll let you decide if I mean wisdom, romanticism, or a love of red meat.) Obviously, I mean that we both have something that makes life worth living. And today marks year number 21. Twenty-one years of waking up next to my sweetie-pie, my snookie-lumps, my prime rib, my good thing.

And so, once again this August 4th, I give a little extra praise to God; for knowing the make-up of my DNA and for completing my life by giving to me the same gift He gave so long ago to Adam-- bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, and an eternal mate for my soul.

Happy Anniversary Patty Dawn Anderson Leigh. You complete me.

There Is Nothing Wrong With Her At All

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OK. So, there is also romantic love to talk about, and I cannot think of a more romantic passage in all the Bible than Song of Songs 4.


1 How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, you are beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are like doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down Mount Gilead.
2 Your teeth are white like newly sheared sheep just coming from their bath. Each one has a twin, and none of them is missing.
3 Your lips are like red silk thread, and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks behind your veil are like slices of a pomegranate.
4 Your neck is like David's tower, built with rows of stones. A thousand shields hang on its walls; each shield belongs to a strong soldier.
5 Your breasts are like two fawns, like twins of a gazelle, feeding among the lilies.
6 Until the day dawns and the shadows disappear, I will go to that mountain of myrrh and to that hill of incense.
7 My darling, everything about you is beautiful, and there is nothing at all wrong with you.



I can hear the Queen of Sheba now..."Shut up, Solomon. You had me at the Goats of Gilead!"

After all, there is nothing wrong with her at all. And as a bonus, she has all of her teeth!

Twenty Years And Counting

Today is my wedding anniversary. Despite the fact I earn my living with the dispensation of words, I'm not much on prose. But let me tell you about what this day means anyway.




20 years ago Patty Anderson woke up a single woman. Within eight hours, she had become Patty Leigh. Well, they say hind sight is twenty-twenty and all that...but looking back, I can say I wouldn't blame her if she would want to change her mind about that day. It has been rocky at times. Four states, about 20 moves, 7 jobs, the loss of a child, and at least a million tears later, who could blame her?



But here we are twenty years down the road and we are more blessed and happy than at any time in our lives. We have given our youth, dreams, money, and health to be right here. And while at times it has been tough, it has never been a question that we would make it to this day, and beyond.



To say that I love Patty, this woman that God put into my life and made my best friend, would be to do an injustice to the relationship that we have. Love fails to capture the true essence of what we have. And while it may sound kitschy or cliché, the only phrase I can think of is soul-mate. We have become...no, we are... so close that our souls have intertwined, and we have become, as the Bible says, one flesh. What we do, we do for each other as if it were for ourselves. I know, I know, it sounds like circular logic, but it is not. It is something you can only experience, not be told about in writing.

My prayer for every couple is that their love be as true, as sacrificial, and as eternal as ours. Some couples are married for 50 or 60 years. We will be side by side in heaven, my darling, forever. I have no doubt that whatever form August 4th takes in eternity, we will know that day! And anniversary cake in heaven (Angel Food Cake?) will be divine and calorie free! I look forward to spending my life and after-life with you.



Patricia Dawn Anderson LEIGH. You are my BRIDE, you are MY bride, and I love you dearly. And as for me...well, I woke up this morning, twenty years later, more in love with you, and happier with you on my arm today, than I could have ever imagined was possible in 1990.



Happy Anniversary, Baby. I-heart-You.

You Complete Me

Hmmmm. August 4th. Why does that date sound important? Something...something...Oh, yeah. It is the day I became complete.

I love the elevator scene in the movie Jerry McGuire. A deaf man is talking to his wife in ASL. He points to her and then draws a circle in the air. Interpretation: “You complete me.” No man is truly complete until he finds the one woman God intended for him—made, created, and designed to be his other half. Right down to our DNA, God matches us.

Listen, don’t take my word for it. Consider the Bible's account the first marriage...

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. 23 And Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Genesis 2:21-25 (NKJV)
And so, every August 4th, I give a little extra praise to God; for knowing my DNA and completing my life by giving to me the same gift He gave to Adam-- bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, and an eternal mate for my soul.

Happy Anniversary Patty Dawn Anderson Leigh. You complete me.