On Saturday, April 17th, Adam and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. Whenever this date rolls around, I don’t think so much about our wedding day, honeymoon, or our engagement. The one thing that I can’t help but think about is how our relationship is an illustration of God’s unending grace and love.
Our story has more to do with God's love for us versus our love for each other.
Before we met, I was recovering from a very painful, and ultimately life-changing, breakup with someone whom I thought I would spend the rest of my life. As a result of that relationship ending, I experienced a very isolated and lonely summer in between semesters in college. This was the first time that I had been without a boyfriend, or at least a boy to take the place of a boyfriend, in almost 6 years. It was uncomfortable. So, I did the only thing that was left for me to do…I cried out to God. Long cries. Desperate cries. There was so much pain in those cries.
After about 2 months of searching and praying, I began to feel that peace. The peace that the Bible describes as surpassing all comprehension. It was God’s peace.
I came to understand that God was to be my focus, and that He would provide my every need. Up until this time, I had looked for fulfillment and affirmation in whomever I was dating at the moment. That was, and always will be, a recipe for disappointment. I was done with dating just for fun, and was ready to date my husband.
I’m about to tie all of this random information together, I promise.
One journal entry in particular stands out. In that entry, I wrote about the kind of man that I believed God was telling me would be my husband someday.
He would be a man of God.
He would not expect me to be any less than a woman of God.
He would make me laugh, and we would love being in each others' company.
He would make prayer together, and with our children, a daily priority.
He would be the head of our household.
He would love me despite all of my flaws while still challenging me to be a better person.
Just a few months later, I met Adam. It was so much deeper than love at first sight. It was affirmation from God that this was the man that I was going to marry. The most amazing part was the peace that I felt. It was a peace that took away all anxiety that some other girl might snatch him up, or that he might “get away.”
The urgency to get this relationship off the ground was not there. Ahhhhh...
Over the next few months, we became great friends. Then, it happened.
We were having one of our long talks when he starts telling me that another friend of ours had asked him this question:
“If you had to choose someone to marry right now, who would you choose, and be certain that they could make you happy for the rest of your life?”
Then Adam said to me, “The only person that I could think about was you.”
I almost cried! After everything that I had done, after all of the mistakes that I had made, after all of my stupidity when it came to my relationships with guys, God still chose to bless me with a person that seemed to be custom-made for me. It felt like my heart was going to leap out of my chest.
After prayer and seeking God’s will together, we made it official by agreeing that we were dating with the intention to marry someday. Two and a half years later, we walked the aisle and said our vows. God was definitely in the house that day!
Just before our wedding day, I found my old journal, and read over the entry that I had written during that very painful summer. Although I had never laid eyes on Adam or heard his name when that entry was written, it was a perfect description of him.
When I look at Adam now, I see God’s grace. He is my best friend, my partner in crime, my answered prayer. God has already blessed us beyond anything that we deserve, and I can't wait to see how He will use our marriage in the future. The rest of our lives starts now...
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