Marriage Celebration: Tell your story

This is a special edition post that I am super excited to do!! This is a post in which I will share our love story and ask you to do the same in celebration of what God gives us in marriage. I am looking forward to reading your story so post a comment below, add to your blog, or post on Facebook and indicate that you are responding to this post. One person who responds will receive a gift, :) Can't wait. When all responses are counted at the end of the week, one person will be selected at random to receive a gift. This is not to try to force readership or anything like that, I just think it is wonderful to celebrate marriage with all of you. My hope is that we can give those who are skeptical a view into what a beautiful thing marriage is. <3 you all!

Jared and Nicole: Our Love Story (brief version)

Jared and I met at a typical location, work. However, I knew from the first moment that Jared was not your typical guy. He greeted me with spiked hair and a smile that warmed the heart. He was bold and adventurous from the moment he met. We talked about runny eggs, life, and church camp. (Neither of us was a believer at the time, I do not find this ironic however. . .) He kept sitting with me at lunch and I did not know his name. Later I would take his name. . . :) Kinda funny. Ok moving on so we started dating and hanging out on Sunday nights another interesting detail. We began to fall in love or should I say I began to fall in love. A month or so passes and I tell Jared how I am feeling. He tells me at that moment that he does not love me. . . Our story could have ended here but deep down somewhere beyond my pride and ego, I just had a feeling this was the beginning of something great.

Jared has always been honest, brutally so, as you can tell another character trait I happen to love and struggle with simultaneously. We began to go to church after a friend invited us and began to fall in love with God and each other. One Saturday night we missed church, again no coincidence. I happen to remember that my brother had suggested we watch a video by a man named Paul Washer. We decide to watch it. God breaks our hearts and thus begins two love stories with our Savior. . . Things are difficult. We struggle with the reality that the way we were living was not the way God intends. We are being assaulted as new believers constantly by one who seeks to destroy what God began. Slowly He continues to draw us, transform us, and call us to a new way of life. Jared proposes on December 14, 2007 after a horse drawn carriage ride. Fairy Tale come true, there is a happily ever after. . . after all. . .

God is a great redeemer and puts it in our hearts to make a vow, one with His help we kept until our wedding day. The day comes and the man who I could not name becomes my husband, and I take his name. The honesty of Jared shines forth as he tells me he loves me, and I know for sure he does. This love story does not end there, it is still continuing today, four years and a baby later. . .

Marriage is a gift. It is a redeeming struggle in which God shows me what love really is. As difficult as it is, I adore it, I cling to it, and He transforms us both.