Back to the Future

3 years ago this month, I was in a foreign country where I learned so much about missions work, other peoples and myself.
           
---A little back story: before I left for this trip at the end of May 2011, the love of my life and I reunited after almost 6 months of trying to figure us out. (It's a lot of drama and I'll spare you). The point is we were together again just for me to leave for the next month for a destination all the way on the other side of the world.---

Those 30 days I was gone from his side, I learned what it meant to be a Godly wife and woman. I learned from people who were living it under some pretty difficult situations. I remembered looking on my parent's marriage, my sister's marriage, my grandmother's and so many others and how they did it. What had to shift in them for them to become the life-partner their husbands needed? During those 30 days, I picked up a book or two. I picked up the Bible. I learned so much.

                                                                  I wasn't the only one.

 

While I was "galavanting" the East Asian coast, my man was also learning. He was studying under men who had been married for ages. He was studying me. Most importantly, he was studying under the Creator. We corresponded through email the whole month. Thank God for Skype! We wrote of our unfailing love, His unfailing love, our dreams and desires as we embarked on a journey towards the rest of forever. While we were apart, I learned his heart. He learned mine.

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Those 3 years have passed with joy and sadness, happiness and anger, short fuses and long talks. We've been married a little over a year now. They say the first year is hardest, but we held strong. Now, in this second year of marriage, we are left to correspond through emails, Skype and phone calls again. This will be harder than 3 years ago. This will be harder than our first year. But, you know what? It's the same test. It's the same situation where we will learn each other, learn from each other. We will learn ourselves. We will learn about our God. I will continue to learn what it means to be a Godly wife for my husband and he will focus on what's at hand for him as he learns how to best serve me.
Our lives are turned upside down, though not necessarily in a bad way. We just have a future to hold on to, a desire to fight the fight that we already know the outcome. If we didn't know anything else, we know that we're forever.
                                                            We knew that 3 years ago.