T.D. Jakes is known all around the world as the founder and lead pastor of a 30,000-person mega-church, The Potter’s House, a sought-after speaker, a counsel to presidents, a movie producer and a best-selling author. But before all the fame, awards and accolades, Bishop Jakes was a young man with a vision at a church in West Virginia.
That’s where he met his wife, Serita, whom he married in 1982. Now, over three and a half decades and five grown children later, the two are still together — traveling the country, sharing the Gospel and serving communities through various humanitarian projects.
Their union is a strong one, but it hasn’t always been warm and fuzzy. Just six months into their marriage, Bishop Jakes and Serita survived a horrific car crash that left Serita with severe leg and foot injuries. Doctors weren’t sure she would ever walk again. Throughout her recovery, Bishop Jakes was by her side, and now they both view it as a blessing in disguise.
“I think it enriched our marriage in a lot of ways,” he says. “But it was very difficult to go through.”
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“I prayed for her, I took care of her, I cooked for her, I washed her hair, I taught her how to walk — literally,” Bishop told the Huffington Post. “[I] stood in front of her and said, ‘You can do this,’ and taught her to walk again,” he said proudly.
Eventually, Serita made a full recovery. The whole ordeal, both believe, only made their bond even stronger.
“It brought us together,” Bishop Jakes says. “We have an unexplainable connection… I guess, at the core, we’re friends.”
Celebrating their 38th wedding anniversary, Bishop Jakes shares this heartfelt message on his social media.
“Thirty-eight years ago, two young people sliced this cake, oblivious to the magnitude of experiences we would encounter, the fire with which we would be tried, the confluence of abject poverty and influence we would ultimately have to manage! Almost four decades later, five children, eight grandchildren, and thirty thousand spiritual children, we are still sweet to each other. ⠀
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This quarantine has given me a gift of undistracted time at home, sheltering in place with you has been amazing. It has been metaphorical to our marriage. With all the dangers of life, we have been sheltered in place. As we age, I have come to realize that it isn’t just that we sheltered in place for the pandemic. We have been sheltered in His grace for thirty-eight years. ⠀
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The truth is, you have been my pavilion, my haven in a storm, my amazing lover and friend, my calm and stable place! Happy Anniversary honey, you are sweeter than the cake we cut! ⠀
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I loved you then, today I love you so much more! Stay with me till my pulse stops and my eyes close, stay with me till my body temperature drops and my breathing ceases, I can’t live without you! ❤️ @SeritaJakes”
“Happy Anniversary to the classiest, most graceful mixture of leather and lace I ever wore in the pool! There’s nothing as beautiful as love in all of its forms! And, with nothing to sustain us but that love, it still looks great on you!”
#KeepSwimming
