Why I love Karen Kingsbury. As most of you know, she is my most favorite author of all time. I collect all her books and pretty much memorize them, lol =) She is an amazing, godly woman, and if I could ever meet her in person, it would be a dream come true. Anyway, on the point of this post, I read this on her online journal...the link to her website is here on my blog...and I really liked what she had to say about marriage. The very last line sums it up if you don't want to read all the rest :)
"I promised I’d tell you why I fell in love with Don all over again during my trip to California. The first two days were wonderful and productive, a time to catch up with old friends and new readers! Though I struggle with any time away from home, God met me at every turn in these two days of events.
Then . . . after the work was done . . . I moved to a hotel on the beach and on Sunday afternoon Don met me there. It felt like a clandestine rendezvous, something that Landon and Ashley might do in one of my Firstborn series books. Stealing a few days from the kids and the chaos to remember why we ever fell in love in the first place.
That first night, we shared dinner at a small table near an enormous window overlooking the Pacific Ocean where the suns slowly melted into the sea. We went outside after dinner and breathed the cool, damp air, watching the lights and looking as far out to the dusky horizon as possible.
Our hearts seemed to beat in unison to the rhythm of the crashing waves.
“I’m so glad I married you,” he whispered to me.
I pressed my head against his warm chest. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
While we slept that night, we left the door of our room open to the ocean below. It felt like we’d fallen into a dream world. The next day we woke early and took a two-mile walk along the beach. We talked about the kids and how we can be better parents, more consistent, more loving. We talked about raising the bar and providing them with challenges that will help them become the responsible young people God wants them to be. We sang praise songs to our God who has – for now – blessed us with them. And we stopped in ankle-deep surf and prayed.
During the day we talked about our lives and how quickly the past twenty years have flown by.
“Why did you marry me?” he asked me over breakfast one morning. “I mean, okay, I know you loved me. But why? And what made you think I’d be the one for you, the one to last a lifetime with?”
It wasn’t a question he’d ever asked before, but I had an answer. “Three reasons,” I told him. The soft crash of waves sounded below and a pair of seagulls flew by our open door. “First, you loved God more than life.”
I told him how that love for God challenged me and made me question my own stagnant beliefs. “I figured if you loved God that much,” I smiled, “then you would always love me.”
He reached across the table and took my fingers in his. “What else?”
“You’re gift in working with children.” It’s always been true. When I met Don he was a PE teacher at a private school, working his way through college enroute to his bachelor’s degree in education and his teaching credential. His patience and humor and innate ability to teach were striking. Sometimes now I watch him with our six kids and I’m amazed. That same ability is why our family is what it is today. God has given him a gift and it continues to play out.
He dismissed the compliment. “Anyone’s good with kids.”
“Not like you.”
“All right, so what else?”
The last one was easy. His view on divorce was perfectly in line with mine. “People don’t just fall out of love,” he would tell me back then. “You have to work on marriage, nurture it, breathe new life into it. Every day, every season, every year you have together.”
Indeed.
I thank God for a time of holding hands and watching sunsets, of quiet conversation to the backdrop of everything belonging to God alone. I thank Him for giving us time to remember why and when and where. And maybe most importantly how. Because in the end, and now that we’re back in our routine, Donald was right about what he said.
You have to work on marriage. Nurture it, breathe new life into it. Every day, every season, every year you have together.Thank You, God, for my Prince Charming."
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