14 years!!

Tomorrow Sam and I celebrate 14 years of marriage!!!

I remember the moment above well, like it was yesturday!!  Except when I look at the picture I don't see the man and woman I believe we are today, instead I see two kids having no idea what they were getting themselves into!  When Sam and I got married neither one of us had the vision and dreams for our family that God so clearly has had!  We were deeply in love, yet were very naive in our Christian faith and what we believed it meant to follow Christ!  I believe that our dreams at that point were more focused around "the" American Dream instead of "God's" dream!  Thankfully, God knew our hearts and knew that we were not quite ready to see or hear "His" dream ... otherwise we might have gone running!  Thankfully, He also knew that He would have to pursue us as we both can be very stubborn when it comes to letting go of control! 

The one dream though that He did give both of us when we got married was the dream to have a happy and healthy marriage, one built on Biblical principles!  Now caution when you read that, because I don't mean a marriage built on conservative roles, but rather one on mutual submission and respect!  God gave us both a dream that consisted of being not only each other's spouse, but also each other's best friend!  He built in both of us a desire to really spend time with each other, to play with each other, to pour into each other, and a desire to invest deeply into our marriage relationship!

Despite that, when I look at myself in that picture I see a young girl scared out of her mind of what would follow after saying "I do!"  I actually prayed every night for the last few months leading up to our wedding that if Sam was not the man God had picked out for me that I wanted God to let me know and I would not get married.  I had A LOT of fears about getting married!  I had lived the life of a broken marriage in the lives of my parents, and this experience created many fears and jaded views of marriage.  I however TRUSTED MY CREATOR and trusted His choice for me.  And I trusted Sam and his heart, knowing even then that I was receiving a SACRED GIFT from my Father through Him!  Sam and I actually took a Marriage and Family class together at the undergraduate level at TWU and I have to say it hugely helped in us building a strong foundation in our marriage early on, one built on good communication and mutual respect!

What have the past 14 years been like?  Full of ups and downs, although mostly ups.  I can honestly say that I am more IN LOVE with my husband now then when I was 14 years ago!  And I can say that I love Sam on a much deeper level than on that sacred day 14 years ago!  Granted this has not come without time and effort on both of our parts!  We have poured HOURS into our marriage realtionship, some of which have been hours of joy, and some of sheer difficulty!  Sam has also honestly exceeded every single one of my expectations of what a husband should be like, and what a dad should be like!  Sam is a God LOVING, thoughtful, kind, gentle, helpful, generous, smart, creative, playful, self-less ... AMAZING dad and husband!!  I can honestly say that I think he is one of the "BEST" husbands and dads out there (no bias here)!  He would do ANYTHING for me and ANYTHING for our jewels, many times leaving me humbled and inspired at his self-less acts of SERVICE to me and our jewels!

Honey, you ROCK my world!  THANK YOU for being an amazing husband!  I consider it a blessing and an honor to say that I am YOUR wife!  Happy Anniversary!

THANK YOU JESUS for the GIFT of my husband!

I can SEE the evidence of Him through you, and I praise YOU for that!