We've been married for two years!

I put together a little slideshow journaling the nearly four years that we have known each other.

Some things just won’t fit into words, but are so special that I feel the need to at least try to articulate them. As I tried to wrap my mind around the wonderful blessing of marriage that God has given us, these are some of the thoughts that tumbled out of my musings.

· I’ve learned that there’s a whole lot more to ‘submitting’ than I thought. True submission requires trust, and that’s something you can’t fake every day. I cannot think of anything that has been more revolutionized in my becoming a wife than my understanding of the concept of trust. I must trust God to lead Jordan while trusting Jordan to follow God. My job? “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the Church, His body, and is Himself its Savior.” – Ephesians 5:22-23. (I think I have the easy part.) J

· Spiritually, Jordan challenges me to be real, to think things through carefully from beginning to end, and to not be afraid to ask questions.

· I love the every-day things of our marriage...our morning routine, getting home from work, cleaning the house, going for a walk, watching a movie, surfing the internet, laughing together, lying awake at night talking....

· The future....

· Sometimes I just sit and think how wonderful it is to be here in this moment, married to Jordan, living in this nice apartment, serving together in a remarkable youth group, working for Northland, preparing for whatever God calls us to do. I truly am blessed!

· Boys are really different! I mean really different. But I love every little thing about mine!

· It doesn’t matter what we’re doing...I just love being with him!

· When we were engaged, married couples who felt burdened to share ‘marital advice’ with me would say something along one of these two lines...it was either “Marriage just gets better and better” or “Getting married is great, but then comes real life.” If I were given the opportunity to share a thought with a young girl who is about to get married, I would tell her about the incomprehensible truth that God's plan is perfect and if she and her husband stay in His will, their love for one another will always be as special to them as it was the day he first slipped that ring on her finger! The truth is, I didn’t think that it would be possible to love Jordan more than I did when we were first married. But love really does grow stronger and deeper in ways we can’t even describe.

"What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined together to strengthen each other in all labor, to minister to each other in all sorrow, to share with each other in all gladness, to be one with each other in the silent unspoken memories?" ~ George Eliot