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Saturday, March 23, 2013

My 2nd Favorite Love Story

Adam and I are celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary on March 27. I am so thankful for God's grace  in sustaining and allowing our marriage to thrive. So, because I love reminders, I thought I would share mine and Adam's love story.

Summer of 2009, I felt restless. I was single and finally at peace with that fact. I was tired of feeling like I was putting my life on hold, waiting for marriage. I had begun the paperwork for a 2 year missionary position with the International Mission Board in which you sign a statement agreeing to remain single and not pursue any relationship during that time. I really had begun to think that the Lord did not have marriage in my future. Every relationship I had been in during the previous few years had only been disappointing and heartbreaking. My life before coming to Christ seemed to be the biggest obstacle...a deal breaker.

I was loved so well by my church family at Concord; I never felt shamed or shunned. I was being mentored by my sweet friend, Kerry, and embraced like another daughter of my friends, Bob and Capi.  Bob had the ridiculous idea that I should try Eharmony as a last ditch kind of effort before finishing my missionary paperwork. I told him, "That's for desperate people." His reply was, "Well, you're desperate." So, middle of July, I signed up for a one month subscription and decided I would "put myself out there". Four days later, I received a message from Adam in Huntsville.

Winter of 2009, Adam became a believer. He also had some "deal breakers" in his past, but was loved very well by friends at Southwood and didn't feel they were a hindrance to any future relationships. Adam was growing very quickly in his faith and seemed to really understand the grace the Lord had given him. He wasn't desperate or looking to find a wife, but his mom, Joan, knew better. In Spring 2009, she signed him up for a year's subscription to Eharmony telling him that he wouldn't find his wife in Huntsville. He talked to a few people, but conversations never went far. Then, in July, he was matched with Lisa from Chattanooga.

My profile picture on Eharmony. I had no makeup on and hadn't bathed in 5 days. Real winner right?

This one of the pictures on Adam's Eharmony profile. Notice the ponytail?

We started the guided communication where Eharmony provides the questions and that quickly turned into super lengthy emails back and forth. Funny fact: I actually thought Adam was foreign before we talked on the phone the first time. I saw the ponytail picture and Adam wrote about living on Kwajalein, which I had never heard of, and he often misspelled words in his emails, so I kind of thought he was not an American...haha! After talking on the phone for a few days (and figuring out Adam was not a foreigner) I told Adam he should come to Chattanooga and visit...so he did.

Our first date, he drove up in Joan's minivan with one single, beautiful, flower he had picked from her garden, for me. We walked part of my running trail that crossed the Walking Bridge and told each other how we came to know Jesus. I really love hearing people's testimonies and we had decided to wait until we were in person to discuss our own. I told mine, giving the parts I felt safe with and leaving out the deal breakers. Adam, however, told me everything! Did not leave one detail out. I didn't feel any reservations about his story, even with him only being a believer for 6 months, because I knew my own sin..and it's much worse. I remember we were walking back across the bridge and I told Adam that there were things I had left out because we needed to have more of a foundation before he could know them. His words were, "Lisa, our foundation is Christ and if I can't look past something that He has already forgiven, then I'm not the man for you."

Amazing words, right?! Although I didn't believe him. I looked at him, thinking that he was the most gorgeous man I had ever laid eyes on, and I didn't want to get attached, so I decided to tell him everything. I honestly thought, "I'm going to get this over with, finish our date, and I will never see him again." After I had finished telling him all of the dark, hurtful, things I felt so much shame about, he looked at me, told me he was sorry for those things and said that he was broke (as though that would be a deterrent for me). He didn't even flinch with my sins. Adam has told me that as I unveiled my "deal breakers" that I looked like a little girl who had been badly hurt and mistreated and he thought, "I can love her, I can protect her."

Our first date was August 7, 2009 and after whirlwind trips back and forth for both of us between Chattanooga and Huntsville, he proposed September 5, 2009 after 6 weeks of emailing and dating. On our wedding day, we had been together a total of 8 months!




As you may have noticed, the title of this post is My 2nd Favorite Love Story. My favorite love story is about a God who became a man, bore my sins and my punishment, and died in my place because He couldn't bear for me to be separated from Him. Then, He rose from the grave so I, too, could have a new life. Before Adam, I knew I was dearly loved. I felt safe knowing that Jesus knew more of my sins than I did and didn't turn away in disgust...instead, He embraced me and took me for his bride. My most persistent question as a single person was, "Is there anyone who could come close to loving me like Jesus does?" Adam has been the answer to that, but only because Adam understands what it means to be Christ's beloved as well. 

Two sinners, redeemed, given a small glimpse of what eternity will be like.....we are blessed!





2 comments:

  1. That is beautiful, Lisa. Thank you for sharing your story of love.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Whoot whoot! happy tears!

    ReplyDelete

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