Eight Years :)

My heart is so full right now I could just cry! My husband, the true love of my life, is sitting in his office with our daughter on his lap. I can hear them both singing heartily... my cup runneth over!

They are singing "I'm sailing through... above the moo-ooon... and someday soo-oon... " or however that hawiian-sounding song goes! The handsome voice of the man I love mingled with the innocent and loving voice of our one treasure is about more than I can take!

You know, nine years ago when Chris and I first began to talk I knew that he was 'the one'. It wasn't very long before I felt that nobody had ever loved another person with the strength and heart that I loved Him. I felt I knew what God was saying in the Bible when He speaks of the Bride of Christ, and the joy a newly wed couple has in each other.

It has only been eight years since our wedding day, but we already feel so tried and tempered in our marriage; so set. We have faced things that you wouldn't think were possible in such a short period of time. There was even an odd period of time where another woman had decided just by looking at me that I was not a threat or formidable foe in protecting and maintaining my own marriage, and tried to come against it. She was aggressive in a way that is so unbecoming and unladylike, not at all within the parameters of the Christian character she claimed. I found it both surprising and insulting, but in the end I also found that I have the kind of husband who will come out with it and tell a woman she has no right to try to interfere in what God has knit together. His love for me is not an appearance, it is genuine.

How did I get this gem of a man? How did I find the one guy who will love me unconditionally, be honest, supportive and yet still the very strong Godly leader of our home? I am not certain, but I will spend the rest of my life trying to earn him! :) 

It is not every girl that marries a man who thinks of her needs and happily tries to meet them. Yes, he did quit courting me after we got married, if you consider flowers and candies, presents and birthdays and such on a regular schedule; however, he has never for a moment been less than dedicated to our marriage, our home and our mutual heart towards God. In the end, I would rather have the man who is amazing and lovable every day than one who forcibly remembers me at programmed intervals. 

Christopher is my heart, my love. He has proven himself when I never asked for or required him to. He speaks tenderly to me when I need a little bit of extra emotional care, stands for me when I am faced with the enemy, prays for me in a heart turned ever towards God, supports me in throwing my all into our daughter - my calling until she is grown - and yet will still belt out "I Got You, Babe" with me when we are feeling silly and lovey! 

He slow-dances with our daughter when she wants to be someone's loved princess, and makes her feel the same way I do - that there is no length in the world he would not go for us. We are so secure in him, so loved, so cared for... above all, so well led. He reads to us both from God's Word, and will drop the world in a moment's notice to pray with us if we ask it. That is a trait my dad has that I have always most admired. I feel secure that our daughter will not have to go elsewhere for love because he has completed the circle I can only half-make with my arms, and together we wrap her in the same loving security blanket I was gifted by my parents.

Clearly I could go on all day... there are not words enough to speak highly enough of my husband. You may say it sounds like I have him on a pedestal, but the truth is we have been tested on so many fronts that I am just that secure and confident in him. This love makes the love of our youth seem so silly and insignificant, and yet I appreciate that it was the start that brought all of this about. 

Eight years later the original vows stand, only much stronger. There is so much more I would have added to them if I had only known... but that is the blessing of being married. We get to learn and grow together. 

Thank You, Lord, for the way you set up marriage, and for the rewards reaped in loving and growing together in You instead of backing out at the first sign of trouble. Those couple who do miss the best part of real love, I believe. You lead our hearts, You lead our home and we give ourselves, our marriage, our child and our lives back into Your hands.