JustDad.Blog

I’m going to be taking a writing hiatus over the weekend (starting today) so I can focus on my wife and her birthday….This of course, reminded me of a story.

When I was first dating my wife, she went on a trip with her family to Omaha, Nebraska. The night she was returning they were getting in rather late. I was going to have to work super early the next morning.

I wanted to go see her, but this would mean sacrificing at least some sleep. I received good counsel from someone I trusted that I should really turn in early and not go.. but I really wanted to go see her. Her house was a half hour away. So it wasn’t like I could just take a quick nap wake up, and then go back to bed. I would’ve up for a while.

I texted some friends of mine who were husbands and posed the question to them:

When you were first dating your spouse… and she was coming back late… and you had to work early…Would you sacrifice sleep to go see her even for a little bit?

The response I got from these loving husbands was overwhelmingly: YES!

One friend said it like this: “I would absolutely…at half the reward and double the cost!”

I got down on my knees and talked to God about it. I was slowly (soon to become quickly) falling in love with this woman. I heard God CLEARLY reverberating through my mind… repeating the same thing over and over. What he said was this.. repeating what he said through Paul in the book of Ephesians:

“Husbands, love your wives just as Messiah also loved His community and gave Himself up for her”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭5‬:‭25‬ ‭TLV‬‬

Husbands, love your wives… Husbands love your wives…Husbands, Love your wives

Just like Jesus loves HIS bride. HIS COMMUNITY.

Husbands! Love your wives!

I got up from my knees. I got in the car and drove over. I didn’t tell her I was coming, but I knew they were going to be home soon. I walked in to their house, checked on her turtle (my charge while she was gone) and sat on the porch, excitedly waiting for her return.

When they pulled in she was riding in the front passenger seat. The second the car stopped she leapt out of the car and ran to me with a huge smile on her face… she was so excited. She was literally bouncing up and down with exuberant joy!

It’s hard to convey her level of excitement. Hard to convey how much this meant to me as well, knowing I had made the right call. We spent some time together that evening and I woke up the next morning with joy… only a little sleepy.

It was that night that solidified for me the reality that she was to be my spouse. The intellectual reality caught up to me the Tuesday following and we were engaged that next week… married 17 days later… and with 3 kids and 1 on the way , almost 6 years down the line… still married.

It all started with a clear word from the Lord:

“Husbands, love your wives just as Messiah also loved His community and gave Himself up for her”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭5‬:‭25‬ ‭TLV‬‬

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May you know how much He TRULY loves you. May you perceive how much He truly gave up for you… becoming sin for us, dying on the cross, so that we might have a relationship with Him and His Heavenly Father. May you then, love like He loves, with exuberant joy and exuberant sacrifice!

““For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬ ‭TLV‬‬

“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Yeshua the Messiah, the One You sent.”
‭‭John‬ ‭17‬:‭3‬ ‭TLV‬‬