15 years together

Fifteen years ago on August 15, I walked down an aisle. I was a young but conscientious 20 year old bride…

careful to walk with great poise and grace at the right pace

careful to look from side to side and smile warmly at those who had come as I passed by

careful to contain the overwhelming flow of emotions as I neared my groom.

If I knew then what I know now, I would have kicked off those ridiculous high heels and run down that aisle as fast as I possibly could unashamedly into the arms of the one my soul loved. I wouldn’t have worried about appearing poised or graceful or put together or dignified. At the end of that aisle stood my future, my life, my story…

 

Nothing else should have mattered, but I was only 20 and distracted by so many things. I was distracted by my dress and my hair and my lipstick (which seemed to disappear as soon as I put it on.) I was distracted by the decorations which we had designed ourselves and the cake that didn't look just as I had imagined and that one musician who had forgotten his song AND his guitar. I was distracted by the guests, who was and was not there. I was worried about letting down my soon to be in-laws and the expectations others put on them and, as a result, me. Hopefully, I hid all these things well and no one noticed. I tried incredibly hard because more than anything, I wanted to appear ready to be getting married.

 

Before I knew it, I was standing before the dark walnut doors that led to the aisle that led to my groom. I took a deep breath and slid my arm into my dad's. Another deep breath and the doors opened. Off I went...

 

careful to walk with great poise and grace at the right pace

careful to look from side to side and smile warmly at those who had come as I passed by

careful to contain the overwhelming flow of emotions as I neared my groom.

When I finally made it down that aisle and my hands were finally placed in Danny’s hands, everything else began to fade. As we listened to dear friends sing beautiful songs (even the guy who didn't know his song and had forgotten his guitar)  and as we listened to Danny’s dad preach words of truth, we somehow zoned it all out and looked only at one another...and we played thumb wars.

 

Thumb Wars!?! Yes, thumb wars. His dad gave us the “stop that” look but we just disregarded that and continued to play thumbs. We were communicating without communicating.

 

We would wrestle with life together, always together.

Then we got to the vows and the rings...the serious stuff. The thumb wars stopped. Our eyes were fixed and our minds set because these words would change everything. These words would form our story. Although every aspect of the wedding was carefully planned, we spent the most time on our vows, reading what seemed like hundreds of suggestions. The vows we chose were fairly traditional with the exception of one line we added to the very end, which was, “serving Christ as we serve each other.” Although we were incredibly young, there was one thing we seemed to understand early on in our dating life:

that our lives would be spent serving Christ together

and that only by serving Him could we truly serve each other.

We have traveled a long way in the last 15 years emotionally, spiritually, and physically and learned a lot of hard lessons.  Our journey has been FAR from perfect or easy and it certainly wouldn’t have been the story we would have written for ourselves if you would have asked us to do so 15 years ago. But if I knew then what I know now, I would have sprinted towards that young groom and that story with reckless abandonment, not because it would be perfect or easy, but because

 

it would be the story God would use to build us together

and it would be worth chasing from the start.

 

Happy 15th anniversary Danny!

 

You are still my future, my life, my story

and we will chase this story together with reckless abandonment!