This past Wednesday appeared to be another run-of-the-mill kind of day. The alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. and my hubby and I proceeded with our work day routine. We headed out the door, in different directions, to jobs we love and feel blessed to have. But the day wasn’t another ordinary day. It was a significant day in our lives, for it was the one on which we wed fourteen years ago. However, it was the first one we celebrated having completed goals we set so very long ago. My husband and I met in August of 1996, we began dating in the winter of 1997, we got engaged in the fall of 1998 and we married in June of 1999. We were so very young, but couldn’t have been more certain that God intended for us to spend the rest of our lives together. We had such beautiful dreams, such important goals, such high expectations, and such great desires to accomplish it all together. Being a person who values tradition and respects order, I wanted to see us go to college and graduate before we got married. Nevertheless, we bucked tradition and proceeded with what we knew was God’s timing for our life.
Our decision to marry at eighteen years-old was met with an understandably large amount of resistance. Our parents were anything but excited. They were deeply cautious and sufficiently objectionable on our behalf. They completely had our best interest at heart. They wanted the best for our lives and typically that involves postponing such an event to a more appropriate and socially acceptable age. We knew it would be easier to wait. But we knew the path God was leading us would have far greater reward than the easy street. And come to find out, it did and it does.
I spent most of my growing up questioning if anyone would want me. I grew up wondering if I’d ever be able to have children. There was nothing I wanted more than a family, and the Lord didn’t let me wait. My emotional agony had lasted long enough. God gave peace to my spirit when Brandon requested I marry him. And I found my greatest confidence in becoming a Mom to Brooklyn, Jaron, Caden and Gavin. There’s no accomplishment that compares to the one I have in being their Mom.
And there I was at work on Wednesday afternoon, June 19th 2013, taking my lunch break, to eat a quick meal with my husband. We celebrated our fourteenth anniversary in the waiting room on the fifth floor of the Children’s Hospital at Saint Francis. And believe it or not, it couldn’t have been more ideal. God brought this amazing man into my life, blessed us with four miracles, and He used those experiences to call me to do the work I was doing that very afternoon as a nurse in the NICU.
There are times our life may not follow custom. It may not get the approval and support from those we love and respect. We may be faced with sacrifice, with unpleasant conversations, with uncomfortable moments. But if God plants a vision in our heart, if God calls us to do the unpopular or the difficult, then He will give us the courage and determination to follow His will. It is He and He alone. And when we live a life to please Him, He irons out the rest.
We’re living our “happily ever after” with a very supportive family, because we dared to follow God’s plan.
The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you. Psalm 32:8 (NLT)
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