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A couple shares the importance of keeping Jesus at the center of a marriage.
“Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12).
When Mark and Patty Emond, members at St. John, Montello, Wis., learn of an upcoming wedding, they get to work preparing a personalized handmade keepsake for the couple: a printout showing a simple graphic of a cord and two rings, the words of Ecclesiastes 4:12, and the couple’s names connected to God’s name.
It’s their way to encourage couples to keep God in their marriage, something the Emonds have strived to do since they tied the knot 40 years ago.
“Today we have four sons, eight grandchildren, each other, but, most importantly, we have Jesus still in our lives!” says Mark.
Adding the third strand
Mark and Patty met at a New Year’s Eve party in Two Rivers, Wis., in 1981. They didn’t start dating right away because someone else beat Mark to the punch and asked Patty out first. Mark, who had recently lost his job, decided to enlist in the Marine Corps and was stationed in Quantico, Va.
When Mark was home on leave a few years later, he and Patty reconnected and began dating, continuing their romance with phone calls and letters until Mark proposed over the phone a few months later.
After the wedding, they set out for their new life together in Virginia. At the young age of 21, Patty had never lived on her own before. “It was my first time on a plane, my first time out of state,” she says.
Mark was a WELS member, and Patty grew up Catholic, though she admits that her family never attended church much during her younger years. The couple started attending church at a WELS congregation in Virginia, where Patty took instruction courses and Jesus became the third strand.
“A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”
Suffering losses
Married life in the military isn’t easy. “The first five years we were married, we moved five times,” says Patty. That included relocating across the country to California and a yearlong deployment for Mark to Okinawa.
Besides being separated when Mark was deployed, the couple, longing for a baby, experienced heartbreak when Patty suffered two miscarriages, the second one five days before Mark left for Okinawa. That was especially hard on this young family because Mark had no choice but to leave.
“I’ll be the first to admit, my faith, even as a Lutheran, wasn’t that strong at that time. It was challenging, and I kept looking up like, ‘Okay, Lord, why? Here’s two now and you know we really want to have children.’ And it was a tough way to go for a while, trying to understand why God would allow this to happen,” says Mark. “Yet he got us through it, and we just kept praying about it and hoping that finally he would give us a child.”
“A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”
Leaning on the Lord
God did bless Mark and Patty with their first child, a son, in 1988. Three more followed, the youngest born in July 2001. The couple had just moved to Montello, Wis., after Mark got a job in food service at the Federal Correctional Institution in Oxford, Wis. He was still serving in the Indiana Air National Guard.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Mark was just getting home from taking the three older boys to school. “When I got home, Patty said, ‘Hey, did you see what’s going on?’ She showed me the TV, and I said, ‘No, that can’t be real,’ ” says Mark. “Then I told Patty, ‘Well, you know, I hate to say this, but it’s coming. I’m going to be going overseas.’ Yeah. We knew it was coming.”
When Mark reported to Indiana in October for his monthly National Guard drill, the chief asked for volunteers to go overseas. Mark, a technical sergeant, was one of the first to raise his hand. “I learned in the Marine Corps about leadership by example. If you expect your people to do it, you’ve got to do it,” he says.
Mark volunteered four times to go overseas after 9-11. “The first time we went, we didn’t know how long we were going to be gone and we didn’t know where we were going,” he says. “Just before we left, they told us we could say one last good-bye. So I held my little guy because he was only a few months old and I had my three older boys. . . . And I said, ‘Hey, guys, this is something Dad’s got to do. But I love you and I care about you. And I don’t want to leave.’ My oldest son already got it. ‘Hey, Dad,’ he said, ‘the military has given us a lot of benefits. Now it’s time to give a little back.’ ”
Though Mark never had to go into combat during his military career, he was gone overseas for long stretches of time, missing birthdays, ball games, and other family events.
“When people thank me for my service, I let them know that they really need to thank [Patty] especially for her service,” he says. “She took care of our four sons the four times I was deployed overseas after 9-11. She never missed a beat! She did it without complaint and did a tremendous job.”
Mark says during that time he leaned on his Lord. “I am ashamed to say that before 9-11 my Bible was brand new with dust on it,” he says. “But that all changed when 9-11 hit. Now my Bible is falling apart, and I have to carry it in a zippered leather case!”
“A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”
Trusting God’s promises
Mark retired from the military in 2021, after 38 years of service. Besides being separated during Mark’s deployments, Mark and Patty have had their share of hardships, including an overreliance on alcohol, a bankruptcy, and family strife. But through prayer, love, and respect, the couple remained close to each other and to their Savior. “We’ve grown. The good Lord’s got us through. That’s the most important thing,” says Mark. “A lot of people have challenging marriages, but the important thing is we both agreed to work through [the challenges]. Divorce was never the solution.”
To keep their faith strong, Mark and Patty regularly have devotions and pray together. Though the things they pray for vary, one consistent focus is on their children, some of whom don’t attend church regularly.
“Patty and I just keep praying that the good Lord will keep them in his care,” says Mark. “That’s one thing we worry about more than anything. We pray for it all the time. Each night before we go to bed, we pray that our boys will stick with Jesus.”
Because Mark and Patty know that this connection is the most important one anyone can have.
“A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”
Author: Julie Wietzke
Volume 112, Number 06
Issue: June 2025
Mark and Patty’s advice to young couples
- Put God first.
- Stay in God’s Word
- Stick with Jesus all the way through no matter what.
- Encourage each other with God’s Word when you have disagreements.
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