Today we mark our tenth Wedding Anniversary. Rather than proffering a present of aluminium or tin, Jon broke with ’10 year’ etiquette and bought me some diamond, that word was diamond, earrings. This is almost entirely out of character. My husband does not throw money around, especially at a time of great expense – such as moving house or the start of a new school term etc etc. To say I was surprised and delighted is an understatement.

But I will be honest with you. I was ALMOST as excited by the box and the bag in which they came. Jon had bought them from an exclusive jewellers called ‘Hancocks’. Nice touch huh? Ten years on and he still surprises me!

As I got myself ready for my day I was reflecting on the things he could have bought with all that money. I started to feel a bit guilty. I am a girl with simple tastes. I don’t go out often, I don’t like people going to huge extravagance on my behalf. I am embarrassed more than pleased by expensive presents. I don’t crave foreign holidays or designer clothes. I think immediately of the poor and the homeless and my little heart struggles to enjoy the offering…

But those earrings are a symbol. They are to mark not just an occasion, but a commitment. When we got engaged… (THAT’S a funny story I must blog about one day) we designed an unusual ring for me to wear. It is a spiral of 10 sapphires and one diamond. The 10 blues stones symbolise the 10 months we were going out before Jon asked me to marry him, a moment signified by the diamond.

On the day we got married we were quite poor, so my wedding ring was a £10 fake diamond band from Marks and Spencers. (I still have the ring but the ‘diamonds’ have fallen out!) I didn’t mind at all. Like I said, I’m not interested in things like that and I wanted my engagement ring to be my wedding ring.

So today when I opened my earrings I remembered why we made that ring, why we chose one another and why we are still married.

I am about to go and put my earrings on. Diamonds are not this girl’s best friend, but they certainly remind her of the best husband God could ever have given her.