A Truly Magnificent Couple

In 1937, on this very date of April 29, Gordon and Marjorie Hinckley were married in the Salt Lake Temple.. which would make today their 74th anniversary. Oh, how wonderful I think this couple is. I love how you could tell they loved each other. I love that they never argued. I love how joyful they seemed… how simple and down-to-earth they were. It wasn’t about fashion and pomp, it was about LOVE, humility, hard work, and testimony. And I love these words President Hinckley said in a CES Fireside. What a great reminder of what an eternal and strong marriage/home/family can be.

“I believe in beauty…. I sat at dinner across the table from my wife the other evening. It was fifty-five years ago that we were married in the Salt Lake Temple. The wondrous aura of young womanhood was upon her. She was beautiful, and I was bewitched. Now, for more than half a century, we have walked together through much of storm as well as sunshine. Today neither of us stands as tall as we once did. As I looked at her across the table, I noted a few wrinkles in her face and hands. But are they less beautiful than before? No, in fact, they are more so. Those wrinkles have a beauty of their own, and inherent in their very presence is something that speaks reassuringly of strength and integrity and a love that runs more deeply and quietly than ever before.”

“I believe the family to be the basic and most important unit of society….
“Every marriage is subject to occasional stormy weather. But with patience, mutual respect, and a spirit of forbearance, we can weather these storms. Where mistakes have been made, there can be apology, repentance, and forgiveness. But there must be willingness to do so on the part of both parties.

“I believe in the family where there is a husband who regards his companion as his greatest asset and treats her accordingly; where there is a wife who looks upon her husband as her anchor and strength, her comfort and security; where there are children who look to mother and father with respect and gratitude; where there are parents who look upon those children as blessings and find a great and serious and wonderful challenge in their nurture and rearing. The cultivation of such a home requires effort and energy, forgiveness and patience, love and endurance and sacrifice; but it is worth all of these and more.

“Marriage, in its truest sense, is a partnership of equals, with neither exercising dominion over the other but, rather, with each encouraging and assisting the other in whatever responsibilities and aspirations he or she might have.”

Gordon B. Hinckley, BYU Speeches, This I Believe, March 1992