The Beginning of Our Love Story – installment 1

My parents and my darling have been encouraging me for a little while to post the story God’s writing. It truly is only the beginning as I believe chapter upon chapter will be added until the time of my death.  Literally it’s only the beginning as I’ve given up on having time to do it all in one sitting.   Life and wedding planning are a great pleasure and time is worth gold!   okay… where to begin…

The first time I laid eyes on Jarod was back in Jan of this year on a very interesting day.  I’d spent the night before and that morning caring for my great-grandmother in her home and when I was relieved by her daytime sitter I headed into town to do some family errands.  I met up with a friend for lunch and while I was there I began to feel like I was being watched.  It was quite unusual.  Each place that I went throughout the day caused the sense to increase so that I even looked at the back of my skirt one time to see if I’d sat in something!  (I’m not joking!!)  My next to the last stop was Walmart to pick up some sale items and as I turned into the canned goods aisle I found myself standing face to face with a young man I immediately identified as a believer.  There have been few times in my life that I was certain from first glance that someone knew and walked with the Lord and this was one of them.  Somehow the Holy Spirit abiding in me identified with the Spirit of God in him.  I can’t explain it – I hope somehow you understand.  There was a brightness about him (and a twinkle in his eye that I now know is ready fun.)  We exchanged smiles and I moved on without speaking – rude I know, but I knew I could not speak.  I don’t know why, that’s not like me, especially given the fact that he was with boys I used to babysit and consider family friends.  We passed a few more times and each time I politely avoided them and as quickly as I could escaped the store.  As I went through Kroger, my next stop, the sense of being watched and need to be on guard continued.  Half way through, I was approached by another young man who tried to give me his phone number.  After kindly refusing to take it, explaining I was in a covenant with my father, he asked to have Daddy’s cell number.  (How grateful I am that my father faithfully prepared me to handle such a situation!!)  Boy, by the time he finally walked off I was READY TO GO HOME!! 

You know, it strikes my as ironic whenever “that day” comes to mind how I saw God’s choice for my life for the first time and Satan’s attempt to match it.  Had I, in frustration and weariness of *waiting* on God, handled the second situation wrongly, I could have, probably would have, messed it all up.  As it was, God began to do a work in both me and Jarod from that moment (though we didn’t recognize it for a little while) and planted seeds of truth in the life of the other gentleman.  (He did call my dad 3 times –  he was not a believer and was introduced to our faith in Christ because he wanted to know what it was about us that would make me voluntarily  give up my rights to plan my own life.)  Another benefit to the order of that day is that the forwardness of the second encounter made the Wal-mart experience seem so mild that I genuinely didn’t give it much thought at all until later in the summer…  I continued to (try to) rest in the Lord.

About that time I asked the Lord to give me a verse for this year.  I actually laughed when I prayed because I teasingly asked Him not to give me another Scripture about waiting.  Well, God has such a sense of humor!    Isaiah 30:18 doesn’t so much deal with us waiting but on why God waits.  “And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgement: blessed are all they that wait for Him.”  I have been blessed in my waiting, God has been gracious and merciful and I believe He will be exalted.

I’m out of time.  I promise to not be so detailed with the rest of it!   It’s just that this day, in my opinion, needed to be fully recorded. 

BTW…  an interesting side note.  Jarod and I did a little research through dates last Jan and discovered that the day we saw each other in Wal-mart was actually Friday, Jan 13 ’06.  We didn’t realize this until we’d already set our wedding date, but we’ll be married exactly one year to the date (almost the hour) we first laid eyes on each other!