engagement

One of our very close friends got engaged this week. Jimmie asked Laura to marry him last night and of course she said yes! I have grown to love Laura and know that our friendship will continue to grow as she becomes an "official" member of our SPUR family!!! :) She is not only beautiful, but extremely humble and personable and always has a great opinion about life. She is spunky, energetic and a GREAT match for Jimmie. I am so happy for them and look forward to seeing God bless them as a couple now as well as individually.

This event made me remember my engagement and realize how special a time that was. We were engaged on Valentine's Day six years ago. It was a complete surprise to me and my love popped the question on a Wed night in front of all of our student's in the student ministry we were then serving at. Everyone knew but me and it was so thought out by him and pefect for us. We then went to a fabulous restaurant in downtown Houston and I think I just stared at my ring the whole meal!

We had originally set to marry after summer and that gave us about 7-9 months to plan, but a few days into the planning we realized we did NOT want to wait that long and ended up settling on a date that was about 4 months away. After my mom freaked out at the timeline we were now working with, we set to planning a wedding. I must say my mom did ALL the work and I just said yes or no to stuff. SHe was amazing and my wedding would NOT have happend if it were not for her. (thanks mom!)

During our engagement my love for my sweetie grew by leaps and bounds. It is weird, but once you have that ring on your finger, a date set and a future in mind things seem to change. He was no longer just my boyfriend, but he was the man I would spend the rest of my life with. WOW! Everything changes.

Looking back now I realize how confident I was in our love. Previous to dating my now husband I had been engaged before and broke that off (thank God because now I'm with my wonderful love) because I kept having this feeling in my gut that just wasn't right. If you have that, please allow yourself to examine it and determine where that is coming from. Thank goodness I had the strength and the support from family to say it was okay for me to back out even though a dress was bought, reception booked, and lots of other lost deposits. My parents were 100% supportive of me changing my mind even though it meant that they lost money on the whole thing.

Back to my engagement with my love. We had four months before our wedding and within those four months we were tested more physically than we had our entire year and two months of dating. Things were different all of a sudden. I wanted to do more with him and I wanted to be alone with him more than we usually were. I knew I was going to marry him, so what was the big deal. All of a sudden we were having feelings towards each other that we had spent a lot of effort to keep at a minium and now they were bubbling over the top. We were ready to be with each other forever.

Praise God we were faithfull to him and to each other and were able to remain very pure until our wedding night. That is one of the most favorite things about him and I - were experienced each other for the first time on our wedding night. During our engagement it was difficult but the rewards outweighed the temporary feelings of excitment that would have happened.

I am truly married to the man of my dreams. God blessed me beyond I could ever imagine when he put us together. He is extremely thoughtful towards me and our kids. He surprises me with spceial gifts when he's been out of town. He hardly ever goes a week without taking me out on a date. He knows me like no other person does and still loves to be with me. It is only God that could have matched me with my true love.

So, to Jimmie and Laura - YIPPEE for you! Marriage is by far the BEST thing on this earth. I can not imagine my life without my partner. My advice to you - Do what you want with your wedding! It is yours and no one elses so it doesn't matter what anyone else says! If you want to wear a pink leapord outfit then you can because it is YOUR day! Go for it! Make it your special day to represent you guys! I love you both dearly and can't express how happy I am for the both of you! You guys are awesome and God WILL DO AMAZINGLY wonderful things through both of you to impact this world for eternity!