New Marriage

God, I found them. I actually found them. Or maybe you brought them to me. Yeah, that's more like it, because if I'm being honest, I was looking in all the wrong places and making all the wrong choices, and then this person just walked into my life like it was the most natural thing in the world. And nothing has been the same since.

You know the journey, God. You were there for every piece of it. The heartbreaks that nearly ended me. The nights I told you I was done that love wasn't for me that maybe I was supposed to do this life alone. I meant it, too. I wasn't being dramatic. I was tired. Tired of giving myself to people who couldn't hold me right. Tired of almost. Tired of close but not quite. And you just listened. You didn't argue with me. You didn't correct me. You just waited. Because you knew what was coming.

And now here I am about to stand in front of everyone I love and choose this person. Forever. Not because it's a fairy tale. Not because everything is perfect. But because when I look at them, I see the answer to every prayer I forgot I prayed. Every tear I cried into my pillow at two in the morning you were collecting those. You were building something with them. And it turned into this. Into us.

We're about to build something real, God. Something with roots. Something that lasts longer than feelings, deeper than attraction. A life together. And I'm not scared. I thought I would be but I'm not. I'm just ready. So ready.

God, I need to ask you something important. Protect this. Please. Protect what we're building, because I know the world is going to come for it. I know there will be seasons that test us seasons where we look at each other and wonder if we made the right call. I'm asking you right now, before any of that happens anchor us. Hold us together when we forget how to hold each other.

I'm not going to pretend I know how to do this perfectly. I don't. I'm going to say the wrong thing sometimes. I'm going to be selfish when I should be soft. I'm going to need more patience than I currently have and God, I'm asking you to grow that in me. Teach me how to listen when I want to talk. Teach me how to stay in the room when everything in me wants to walk out. Teach me how to fight for us, not against us.

Give us kindness, God. The kind that doesn't keep score. The kind that makes coffee for the other person without being asked. The kind that says I'm sorry first, even when I think I'm right. Let us be quick to forgive and slow to hold grudges. Let us never stop choosing each other even when choosing is hard, especially when choosing is hard.

And God I'm so excited. I'm excited for Sunday mornings and grocery store runs and inside jokes that nobody else gets. I'm excited for the hard stuff, too, because I know it's going to make us stronger. Thank you for this person. Thank you for this life we're about to build. Walk with us, God. Every single step. We're going to need you. And we want you there.