Life changes so quickly.

Yeah.... One assumes I should've figured this out by now. But it just hit me. This past weekend marked one year since Aaron and I decided to move forward into a relationship. The thought never crossed my mind that in a year's time we would be married and living seven hours from my home of twenty years. It was at this time last year that I was moving all my things into a duplex  thinking I was grown up and adult-like. Yet in less than a year I found myself going through the same motions: moving all my things to another home. Things are so different from just a month ago. I live in another state, hours away from the comfort of my home town. The familiarity of family and friends are no longer just minutes away when I need or want to be near them. We're separated by seven-plus hours now. And I'm just now realizing that life changes so quickly.


I am in a new chapter of life, learning to love another as Christ calls me to. I'm having to get use to the term wife and referring to my new roommate as husband. I am in a continuous commitment to sacrifice my wants and desires for another's. I am learning the arts of compromise and communication. I have a life-size mirror with me 24/7 in the form of a man to expose and confront my sinful nature. I am realizing that I must walk in complete transparency, for this man sees all my weaknesses ever before him. Together, Aaron and I have entered a covenant promise to live in unity for a lifetime. An event on June 11th lasted a couple hours yet changed our lives on earth forever. This is an insane transformation, folks. And it's just now hitting me?! 


People have been asking me what my favorite part of marriage is, and the best answer I come up with is "just living life with him." Perhaps that's pretty lame, I admit. But it is truth.  We lived our courtship and engagement in two separate states. Almost in two separate timezones. We shared our hearts with one another but couldn't share our every day lives. Some would disapprove of our choice. Some would question how we made it work. I have nothing to argue with except our relationship was a pure testimony of God's grace. 


Yeah, we have a lot to learn about each other. We are just now discovering certain quirks, annoyances and habits that the other possesses. Sure, it's a challenge learning to love and learning to commit. But it is also an incredible gift. 
On a daily basis I see God's heart, His character, His creativity in my husband. And in a way, I see a slight picture of what Adam and Eve must have felt when they were 'completed' by one another. 
God designed my being to lack certain qualities, perspectives, abilities. And what I lack, Aaron somehow doesn't. I am spontaneous and light-hearted, he is logical, practical and wise. He thinks ahead, I don't think at all. He loves to serve and I just love to be served.
:D


Alright. In all seriousness though, God is an incredible, creative, detailed God. He gives me a picture of my need for Him in my need for Aaron. He shows me my incompletion by giving me a husband that has what I lack. My sin and false strength is constantly before me when I try to love and receive love from Aaron apart from Christ. 
I've come to the humble conclusion that marriage is complicated, folks. 
And it's wicked awesome. 


So in conclusion, get married. Your whole life may change. But you'll see God and know Him in a way unlike any other.
Perhaps even the nasty smells of a husband's dirty clothes.....or the messy habits they may have can be worth the change that God will make in you. 
And after six weeks of this reality, this truth is just now hitting me.