12 Years Ago Today Was The Start of the Journey

The title of my blog is "The Journey of a Happily Married Man with Two Kids." Well, this journey started 12 years ago today. On February 16, 1997, I had my first date with Shelley.

This was a very dark time of my life and I had no idea what this date would turn into. I was going through a divorce with the one I thought was my "soul mate." I thought I had the perfect life until about 4 months previous when she said "I want a divorce." I still remember hearing those words and just dropping to my knees. I felt like my life was over at that point.

At this point in my life I wasn't a Christian and didn't have a relationship with Jesus. I felt that you just needed to be a good person and going to church was what people did to make themselves feel better.

But I remember clearly one evening having a "discussion" in our kitchen. I was trying to convince her that we needed to try and save our marriage and I suddenly had a question pop in my head, "What does God think about this?" We had gotten married in a church by a preacher and in front of God but up to this point that was just because that was how you were supposed to do it. Now I found myself wondering what God would think if we broke those promises we had made in front of him.

This was the first crack in my heart that was opened to let God in. Now I didn't drop to my knees and accept Jesus at that point. The truth is it took me several years but this was the beginning.

Shelley and I went on our first date a few months later and I was taken by her beauty, intelligence, sense of humor and "spunkiness." But I was just looking for someone to keep me company and help take away some of my lonliness, it wasn't supposed to last.

Shelley was a Christian but had drifted so we were two lost souls. We weren't right for each other but we were filling a need each of us had. I believe this gave God the time he needed to work in our lives.

Through a series of events, Shelley found our church and started attending. I started going but it was just so I could be with her. Shelley resumed her walk and then started working on me.

When we got married we were "unequally yoked." I agree with everyone that this is a recipe for a disaster and it was almost for us. We were on a path of potential divorce until two things happened. The first and most important was that I accepted Christ as my Savior. I will always be thankful to Shelley and her persistance along with Ed Young and Fellowship Church. The second thing that happened is we started going to a Christian counselor.

Today we have an awesome marriage, two wonderful boys and are growing in our walk with Jesus. And this journey all started 12 years ago today.