One Year Later
Header photo by Sanford Creative.
A letter to my husband:
One year of marriage down, and the rest of our lives to go. It's been a year of learning, humbling, thriving, laughing, and dancing with you. And to be frank, it's been awesome both for our sanctification and just in general.
The Lord has used you to shape me in areas that I left untouched when I was on my own. You have served me with the love of Christ and I feel like it's almost impossible to outdo you no matter how hard I try.
You have not stopped reminding me that seeking first His Kingdom is the goal and marriage isn't.
You have taught me the importance of slowing down and taking it easy, that God is glorified in our rest just as much as He is in our ministry.
You love people genuinely, prayerfully, and quietly, which is unheard of to me because I need to be talking pretty much all the time.
You have shown me meekness in your unpretentious and humble leadership to the point that it's frustrating because I wish people would just take the time to see what wisdom God has bestowed upon you. Yet, you are still all of these things even when no one is watching.
You are an amazing musician and I can't believe I get to hang out with "the hot one with the guitar and the violin bow."
These are just a few things that come to mind when looking back at this last year. My heart has depths untouched and uncharted by anyone but the Lord, but somehow you've managed to courageously venture into my dark to know me better than anyone else has dared. Still you love me and want to do this life thing with me.
July 30, 2016 was when we made this covenant to be one with one another and to be lifelong examples of Christ's love for and with His Church. You and I made a commitment to glorify Christ in everything and to thrive to model our marriage after the mystery of the Gospel--that love was made known to us through Christ even while we were still sinners, and it is only by Him and through Him that we can truly love and respect one another.
People are wrong. Marriage isn't hard. Navigating around our own sinful wickedness is hard. Letting God take a sledgehammer of His holiness to our brittle, defiant pride is hard. Commanding my past and current temptations to be arrested to God's grace is hard. Dying to my earthly desires to live unto what I can't see is hard. Washing dishes is hard. Eating healthy on a budget is super hard. I know that there are rougher seas ahead as we live in this fallen world, I do not doubt that one bit. Sanctification is hard.
Marriage itself is a gift, a mirror reflecting the glory of the Gospel. God Himself has tethered us to His heart in a grand collision of mercy and justice on the Cross, making a covenant with us solely reliant upon His faithfulness and the power of the Blood. It is a privilege to be made one that we may be a small picture of this. We are imperfect, flawed beings with a huge task at hand that can only be accomplished with the illumination and guidance of God's Word, by the strength and supply of His Spirit, and can only be deemed as finished when we breathe our last breath on earth.
You are the bridegroom of my youth and my beloved for all of my days. Thank you for preparing me well to meet my Heavenly Bridegroom when we are translated into Eternity. I pray that He continues to empower and equip me to do the same.
Your beloved,
Me