Seven Years

It is our seventh wedding anniversary today.  Seven years! Wow! We're pretty broke right now because we have three little children to spend all of our money on and I just came back from 4 months of maternity leave..for the 3rd time in 5 years :)  BUT we've started dreaming of what kind of awesome trip we WILL take for our 10th anniversary.  Mexico? The Caribbean? Florida? California? 

Until then, we're just here doing life with our babies. Cleaning house, changing diapers, making dinners, mowing lawns, doing never ending laundry, singing lullabies at bedtime, comforting scared kids back to sleep at 3am, teaching, loving, cuddling, correcting, refereeing, playing, riding bikes, kissing boo-boos.  All of the mundane things that make up a life with little ones.  These every day things are not sacred really, they're just out practical reality. But when I take a moment to step out of everyday life and think on the big picture of Zach and I, our family, and where we are...my heart bursts with gratefulness, awe of our God, and tears.

THIS, this life with this husband and our babies together as a family is everything I never knew I always wanted (thanks Carrie Underwood for those lyrics).  It is everything the enemy of my soul wanted to steal from my life starting as a young girl and everything God had in store for me.  I get emotional when I think about it. I hit my knees with thankfulness. I get sentimental because I know that THIS thing we're doing here...being married and raising these kiddos with purpose from Jesus is the greatest thing I will do here on Earth. 

Someone who knew both our backgrounds spoke this powerful word over us as we were headed for marriage: WE will be the line in the sand. Our marriage, our kids, our family will be the line in the sand for the strongholds passed down in our families. The schemes the enemy has used to destroy relationship after relationship in both our family lines, generation after generation, will STOP with us. No more broken families. No more divorce. No more affairs. No more relational devastation.

This word was so beautiful and so encouraging for us, especially me. When you're a 21 year old girl completely in love, but from a family filled with divorce and affairs, marriage is a little scary. Can I have a good marriage? Can I have a lasting marriage? Can I have a happy marriage? I don't even know how to do this? Is this even possible in today's world? MAJOR fears! 

Now, 7 1/2 years after that word was spoken, I can say that it is truly the road we're walking. Not because we're so great or somehow exempt from the traps of the enemy.  Not because we're doing it all right. But because we serve a mighty God who's love, forgiveness, grace, and plans are more powerful than all hell can throw at us.  

Staying in a healthy, happy, good place does not just happen because it was spoken. It has taken all the intention in the world. To pursue God. To pursue each other. To pursue connection with community around us. To be intentional in the choices we make with our children.  It's taken commitment to honestly, vulnerability, and humility.  It's taken a lot of hard work.  It taken a lot of pride being laid down.  A lot of selflessness. But the beauty that comes from all of those things is remarkable. 

And I know more than ever before...THIS is the mark on my life.This is my purpose and my passion. That we may leave a legacy for our kids with our marriage and our family that will lead them to live a life of freedom in Christ.

It may sound like "duh. yeah, that's what every believer wants. Right?" But it's not a given. It is not "normal". I get emotional and passionate because I didn't know God had such good plans for me. I didn't know I could have this. I did not know THIS was possible. I didn't know I had such a loving Heavenly Father that He'd give me this. What a good, good God we serve. The healing and restoration I've seen in my life to allow me to be the wife and mama I am today is truly miraculous.  Things only HE can do. Wrongs only He can make right. Only He can take ashes and give beauty in return. 

So we keep marching. To live a life that would glorify our God.  As He shows himself faithful, loving, and good every step of the way.  Thank you Jesus for these 7 years. It is so true that you have good plans for us. Cheers to the things you have in store for the next 7 years as we trust and follow you.