We know that 2018 is a year of so much. A year of new beginnings is one of those things and I am really excited about it! Personally, one of my new beginnings will be in marriage. My fiancé Matthew and I are getting married in a couple months and it is such a God thing.
We met about 7 years ago shortly after his family moved to the area. We had a mutual friend and just met in passing at a birthday party. I was living for myself and not for Jesus at the time and for several years after. Then three years ago when God called me back into the fold, Matthew and I were reintroduced. For that first year we didn’t have much interaction, just the Sunday morning hellos. As I got more involved in the young adults ministry we became casually acquainted through activities and bible study. One night after Bible study, I still wanted to hang out and he and I were talking and decided to go to Denny’s. We ended up talking there until the wee morning hours. And we had no idea at that point what God had in store.
Our church founded a summer youth camp about 27 years ago and I’ve grown up being involved in some capacity. Whether it was being a toddler with my mom visiting the first one, or the hours folding T-shirts and pricing merchandise in the weeks leading up to it every summer. Then attending every year from 6th to 12th grade, Camp Decision has played a major role in my life. So, when I knew it was coming up, I told our pastor that I wanted to go with our youth as a worker. That meant volunteering in the youth ministry two months prior to the event giving the youth and I an opportunity to get to know each other.
The plan was to volunteer those two months, attend camp with the youth as a worker, then continue serving in the other areas of the church. God kept me in the youth ministry for a year and a half.
The youth ministry team is a tight knit family and God developed some much needed friendships in that time. Matthew is a youth worker. In serving together, our friendship was one of those developed. I didn’t pick him out of the crowd and set my sights on him. And he neither on me. I even talked with him and our other friends about this guy or that guy that I met at a conference and how they had the goods to be a godly husband. I always appreciated Matthew’s love for the Lord, but he was pretty quiet so I didn’t know too much about his passions.
After attending Camp Decision 2016 some of the youth girls in my car asked if Matthew and I were dating. We weren’t even on each others radar. Some months later I was driving to church one Sunday morning and I was thinking of Matthew. That’s when it hit me. I had a crush on him! It wasn’t anything I intentioned or thought of, God planted an affection for this man in my heart.
We have to pause a moment to go back in my history. It has been my heart’s desire since my teen years to be a wife and mom. The prayer for a husband has been earnest and long winded. We stifle the plans of the Lord when we try to figure out how to make them work our way. Praise God I was listening long enough to hear him when he said, just seek me.
I talked to our pastor that morning about these feeling and how to get rid of them. God used him to be an encouragement to do just the opposite! Instead I went home, prayed about it that afternoon, and knew then that he was my husband. It took him another couple months to get wind of it. Then after 9 months of dating he proposed!
God is a long term God. He plans out every detail and orchestrates things so intricately. If we get so involved in how we think things need to play out, we can miss the beautiful plan he has in store for us.
“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9
Let him begin a new work in you today and be satisfied seeing just one small detail. Even though we may not see how it fits in the big picture, God does so trust him.
The W.O.R.D. 