The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the LORD. -Proverbs 18:22
It’s official! I am a married man! I haven’t blogged in over one month because I wanted to focus on making the last month the best month of Laura and I’s life! We have now been married for just over one month and have finally finished all of our wedding celebrations.
I wanted my first blog post back to focus on the journey that Laura and I have had together on our way to getting married. We have known each other and been together for the last 10 years (give or take a break or two). Those ten years have been filled with great memories, love, frustrations, break-ups, envy, joy, growth, maturity, and most importantly, in and through it all, God. Looking back, I can only come to one conclusion about the journey: It was worth it.
It was Worth Staying Sexually Pure until Marriage – One of my favorite parts of our wedding day was seeing the picture of Laura when I had her sister give her my purity ring as my 7th and final gift of the day. In the past 10 years, I’ve been made fun of for being a virgin a million times and I’ve had people literally not be able to believe me that we stayed pure until marriage, but now that I’m married, I can say with 100% confidence, it was worth it. It wasn’t always easy, but we did it, we stayed pure until we got married! If you’ve messed up in this area, it’s ok, just determine that from this day forward, you’ll stay pure until your wedding night! It’s worth it!
It was Worth Dating Long Enough to Really Get to Know Each Other – I’m not going into marriage naive enough to think that we won’t have any problems, but I do know that because Laura and I have been together for 10 years, we know each other extremely well and we believe that gives us a great foundation to build our marriage on. I know her strengths and weaknesses, she knows mine, we’ve seen each other at our worst and at our best. We know each others little “pet peeve” annoyances. It was worth getting to know everything I could about Laura before we got married.
It was Worth Going Through All The Tests and Trials – Laura and I broke up several times throughout our journey. We’ve been through a lot of tests and trials together. As hard as some of those times were, looking back, they were all worth it. In our first dinner together as a married couple, we asked each other what our favorite parts of our journey were. Both of us came to the conclusion that the greatest times in our relationship were times when we conquered the tests and trials together. We grew more through conquering tests and trials than we did through anything else.
It was Worth Trusting God – I remember I had to break up with Laura when I was 18 because I was interning at my church and you weren’t allowed to date during the internship! I remember asking my pastor, “What if Laura dates someone else, what if she’s gone at the end of the year?” He said, “Bubba, you’re not trusting God.” That statement changed my life. I’ve had to look back on that moment in my life several times throughout our journey and ask myself, “Am I trusting God?’ Laura has had to do the same. Our conclusion: Trusting God is always worth it.
Having WISE People to Speak into Our Lives Was Worth It – I believe that few people (and relationships) are successful unless a lot of people want them to be. I could make a pretty long list of people who spoke into our lives as critical moments in our journey that helped us immensely. It’s worth having mentors and friends in your relationships that will hold you accountable to God’s standards, speak the truth in love, encourage you, and pray for you.
Making God the Center of Our Lives was and is Worth It – I get asked a lot, “How the heck did you get a girl like Laura?” My answer: “GOD!” Haha! The truth is, without God at the center of our lives, we would have never made it. Having God at the center of our lives gave us the values we needed for a successful relationship, the boundaries we needed, the love we needed, and the people we needed.
It’s Worth Committing to One Person for a Lifetime! – Laura is mine . . . forever! The greatest part of marriage is going through life with your best friend! My grand-parents just celebrated their 65th anniversary! They told us to shoot for 75! We’re doing it! When asked how they stuck together so long? My pap-pap said, “super glue!” Haha! The reality is, they made a choice to commit to each other for their entire lives and they stuck to that decision. I can only imagine what it will be like looking back on a lifetime shared together with Laura. I can promise you that when that moment comes, we’ll both say the same thing we are saying now: It was worth it.
Thoughts?
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Marriage
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