grace-filled conversations among kindred spirits
On March 6, 2015, I met the man I’d marry on the doorstep of my pastor’s home on small group night. Much to my chagrin, I didn’t invite him in, shake his hand, or say a word.
As confused as I was about my feelings, I distinctly remember how strange it was to end our phone calls with just “Good night” and not “Good night, I love you.”
Months passed. A year. “Just friends” morphed into “best friends.” And one night, while we were discussing life dreams, I made a statement–one I meant with all my heart. I said something to the effect of, “Yeah, I don’t see it happening. It’s simple. …
On that work day at the camp, he was looking me over in a wistful, I’ll-never-get-her sort of way, and I was looking him over in a wistful, he’ll-never-be-interested-in-me sort of way. Mr. Bill and his wife were looking at us both and plotting ways to get us together.
If I may be so bold as to offer a word of advice to single women everywhere: beware of creating an imaginary life around an imaginary man so that when a real man comes along you can’t see him for the imaginary life you’ve created. I almost missed him and I wouldn’t want that to happen to you.
In the providence of God, I was friends with a precious co-worker who had lost her husband several years ago to cancer at an early age like Josh. She had given me many insights into what life was like for someone in that situation and how she had neede …
I was resigned that because of my standards, and a desire for a very simple and back-to-basics lifestyle, my chances of finding a man with the same desires were highly unlikely and maybe impossible!
Avoid cold water. Don’t use your prospective husband as a test dummy. Go on as many adventures as you can. And most of all: commit your way to God and trust Him. He can and will direct you, even if it’s up the mountain, into the lake, or over that next hill.
In less than two weeks of talking and praying, we knew the answer. It was reckless. Crazy. My parents had not even met him, had hardly even heard of him, but I was not a reckless person, by nature. I was not the kind of kid who did things like this, unless I was convinced it was of God.
Give him a chance. I thought that I would recognize my husband as soon as I saw him for the first time, but then God surprised me. I admit, our story is long, but you wouldn’t believe a condensed version of the tale told out of context! Our romance is not the typical: “We met, we fell in love, we got married, we lived happily ever after.”
