I am so thankful for my husband and best friend, Brandon. I am thankful for the perfect way that God brought him into my life, and for the ways God uses him to grow and refine me! Since everyone (OK, most women) enjoys a good love story, I thought I would tell ours in one of my first posts! This is not just a story of two, but three, as God authored it, directed it, and is at the center of it. Even as I share the ways He worked I know this story is not complete. I am sure there are so many things that He did that I was totally unaware of and may not know this side of heaven... anyway... here is the story of Shelly becoming a Mrs!
Spring semester of my senior year of college I began to be extremely aware of my lack of potential husband as many of my classmates were showing up at class with rings on their left hands. Most of the time I had total trust in God to lead and direct this area, but I often reminded Him that after graduation it would be harder to meet a nice young man!
God didn't need reminding and he was working things out in His time!
I had been attending and interning at a fantastic church. We had a great Sunday morning class for college students! One Sunday after church my Pastor's wife asked me about one of the new students in our class, Brandon (he had just joined staff with Campus Crusade). I asked her which one he was :) That spring my Pastor and his wife invited me and several key leaders to their home to talk about the fall class schedule (yes Brandon was there I can see you are figuring this out) and we landed on the topic of relationships. We (the core group of about 7 students, an elder and his wife, the Sr. Pastor and his wife) actually designed a curriculum about courtship that proved to be effective in many ways! (If you would like more info on this please request). Well, after a very good meeting, most of the students left, but Brandon and I remained. We hung out with our Pastor and his wife and their three little boys. A couple of weeks later we had the second fall discussion meeting and the same thing happened. Brandon and I were the last two to leave. This time was different. I really began to like this guy! I went home and cried. Then I called a friend to come help me sort things out. Marisa and I talked through specific prayer requests. This is what I recall half a decade later: that God would close and open doors and that we would walk accordingly, that God would align our hearts, that God would remove my feelings for Brandon if they were not from Him. Well, that April 27th these prayer requests were written in my prayer journal along with others. That same night in an apartment Brandon wrote about me in his prayer journal!
Fast Forward through summer as Brandon spent it on the East Coast!
Fall came quickly and college group went very well. As our group wrote the curriculum on things like boundaries and expectations Brandon and I got a clear view of the others feelings on all areas of relationships. At this time we both liked each other, but neither of us knew that the other liked us so we just kept praying... and praying... and praying... and WAITING! I knew I was not going to make a move, but at times I was begging God to take the feelings away as my feelings for Brandon kept growing. Brandon wanted the same things as me in life. He had/has a deep heart for the LORD, for Scripture, for spending time alone with God each day, for discipline, for discipleship and evangelism, for children. Yeah, he was/is amazing! Anyway, I couldn't understand why God was keeping him around.
After Christmas, I noticed that Brandon and I were talking more for longer periods of time. I always had to stay and clean up after the college lunches (well of course I would since it was my job:)) and Brandon would stay and help and we would talk. We talked a lot after church.
Then, on February 3rd 2004 I got a phone call from Brandon asking me a couple of unimportant things. I thought it was strange... Then on February 4th I got another phone call from Brandon (it wasn't that he totally chickened out the night before, I did have a friend over) saying that he wanted to get together that night to talk about our relationship." I said OK, but was nervous all day. Actually, as I sit here and type this I feel nervous right now! I thought Brandon was going to say that he could tell I liked him and that he didn't like me and could I leave him alone. This was NOT the case. We met at the food court of the local mall at 7:00. After some very brief chat I asked what we were there for. This is (to the best of my memory) what came out of Brandon's mouth, "Well, I wanted to talk to you about beginning a relationship which could eventually lead to marriage." My heart leaped out of my body, I can't believe I didn't faint! Brandon then proceeded to tell me that he had liked me and that he had been praying (yes for the same date 9.5 months ago) and that he saw the time was now. He went to my Pastor and his wife to ask their guidance a few days before, and then he asked me what I thought about it. I then told him the things I have written above and that was the start of our courtship, which did eventually lead to marriage only 10.5 months later on December 18th 2004.
Courtship:
Within minutes of the DTR (define the relationship) conversation we were writing out boundaries for the relationship. We had physical, emotional, spiritual, and time boundaries. We updated them each month and gave them to our accountability groups and the Pastor and his wife, as well as our roommates. We NEVER (To God be the Glory) were tempted to stumble in any of the areas and on December 18th we shared our first kiss after the wedding! We were so blessed by the college group relationship series, as we already knew how the other felt about most areas of relationships. By staying far from temptation God really blessed our courtship and allowed us to really get to know all the parts of the other person in a healthy and honoring way. Yes, we still have copies of the boundary sheets and I share them with teen girls in my life. I thank God so frequently for writing our love story, and now I am thankful that He blessed me with the opportunity to share it with each reader. From time to time I may share other stories, like the proposal or others, but this gives you a glimpse at God's perfect timing. I tired to put the photos at the end, but I am still new at this. They are our first photo together, our engagement photo, and a photo from our wedding!
