Marriage to the Girl of My Heart

I can't believe that in exactly three weeks that I'll be marrying the girl of my heart! I never dreamed that God would bring such an incredible woman into my life. NOT IN A MILLION YEARS! James 1:16-18 comes to mind as I think about how good God has been: "Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

The main thing that has been on my mind recently is preparing to be the right type of husband...as Dr. Broggi challenged me: "The Spiritual Leader of my Daughter." During the counseling session that I had with him and GraceAnna this week, he reminded me how important it is that the husband live by the Spirit. Because if I'm the spiritual leader in the relationship, and I'm not walking by the Spirit, then how am I supposed to lead a family to do that? It's impossible!

I would say that the biggest thing that I've learned this past year in my relationship with GraceAnna is what C.S. Lewis called The Principle of First and Second Things. Basically with every book Lewis ever wrote, he explained that when God is our primary love, then we can enjoy secondary gifts from God in a holy way (beautiful sunsets, barbecues, a beautiful wife in my case...in 21 days). But, as soon as we make a gift from God our primary love, then the joy is gone in it because only God can satisfy our hearts with joy. So I found this past year, that when I put my relationship with GraceAnna before my relationship with the Lord, that I was not the type of man GraceAnna needed me to be and the relationship suffered. But when my heart was pursuing the Lord, more than everything else, than rich, deep blessings would flow from the Lord in our relationship.

So, if you are reading this...and I would be surprised if you are since I haven't written in months, and my previous post was boring to say the least (GraceAnna and I were laughing about that the other day), I hope and pray that Psalm 62 would be the prayer of your heart. That you would pursue the Lord with every ounce of your heart before all the loves in your life. If you are coming to the wedding, I can't wait to see you. May the Lord bless you. I pray that your relationship with Him will be deep...

"For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us." Psalm 62:5-8