My best friend was someone who I had known all my life and had always been there for me. As a kid I liked him because he would play with me on the playground and sit by me in Sunday school. What else did I need from a friend? As a teenager he was my confidant because no matter what I was going through I always ran to him and he was there with a shoulder to cry on. He was an all American boy with an all American dream, to be in the Army. It's all he ever talked about and all he ever dreamed of. When he was finally able to pursue that dream I made my feelings on the matter crystal clear. "NO." It was all I ever said. Until the Army rejected him due to medical problems and my reply to the news was a resounding, "YES!" But that wasn't going to stop him. Shorty after realizing his Army dreams were a dead end he became a Marine.
I was devastated and scared to death for two reasons: 1. The obvious. It was 2006 and we were still sending troops to Iraq and I just knew he would be gone before I could even process what was happening. 2. I was going to have to find someone else to be my husband.
He knew me well and before leaving for his first tour in Iraq he said to me, "Sweetheart, you're the kind of girl that needs to be held. You can't do this." At the time I protested, telling him I could do it and I would be brave. Deployment would be fine. But he was right and we both knew it. At that time in my life the very last thing I needed was more abandonment. I had enough issues to land me in counseling for years and I wouldn't have been able to throw deployed husband to the mix. It was bad enough I was facing a deployed best friend.
I was angry with him for a while, but two years later I met a boy who had no intentions of joining the military. (I checked.) He had once wanted to be a pilot in the Air Force, but learned that he would never be able to due to his color blindness. I watched him become a man and within two years of knowing him, he was my husband.
Then the strangest thing happened. Suddenly I found myself alone on my second wedding anniversary because my husband was in boot camp. Talk about a surprise twist in life! I was a military wife after all. The difference however was in the man I married.
You see, for my best friend the military was his dream, but for my husband I am the dream. While my husband loves his job very much and does it extremely well, he ultimately sees it as a means to provide for his family. I know that when he is gone he'd rather be home. He is a dedicated servant of Christ and a fierce servant of one woman, me. Everything he does is with my best interest at heart. It is incredibly easy to submit to a man who I can trust. I trust that in every decision he makes he seeks the Lord's will and then makes the decision he feels will benefit our family the most.
I had always expected my best friend to become my husband, but what happened was just the opposite. My husband became my best friend. Fourteen days after briefly meeting at a football game we were in a committed relationship headed straight to marriage. For us it wasn't a slow realization that your friend was becoming to mean more. It was an instant recognition between two souls that were created by the God of the universe to go through this life as one. I didn't meet a boy, get to know him, become his friend, and then fall in love. I met my love, got to know him, and then became his friend.
So in the end I did get my fairy tale. Christ is my prince who saved me from certain death, and my husband is my compliment who loves me unconditionally. What more could a girl want than a prince to save her life and a love to share that life with?
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