June 25, 1983

Dear Mark and Jill,

Today you are bringing your lives together through marriage. This is a relationship I have brought together for a purpose but you don’t understand that yet.

You have stars in your eyes and no understanding of how I will use marriage to shape you and draw you to Myself.

Jill, I formed you in your mother’s womb 19 years ago. Mark, I formed you 23 years ago. You were created on purpose for a purpose, but you have so much to learn about yourselves and so much to learn about Me. It won’t be an easy journey, but I’ll continue to form your character.

Just like most couples who get married, you will say words today that you have no idea how to live out. The words come easy, but living out the words will be much harder than you understand. I will help you do that.

You don’t want to hear this, but you will experience heartbreak when you each walk in your own way. When you insist on doing things your way rather than My way. You’ll cause your own pain in these times. Pain you don’t need to experience but that I will allow you to experience so you can grow in character and so you will walk closer to me.

You’ll also experience pain because this world is a broken place. The more you walk through this life holding My hand, the more “peace that passes understanding” you’ll experience, even in terribly hard seasons.

On June 25, 2020, you’ll celebrate 37 years. 37 hard-won years of marriage. You will have learned about surrender, sacrificial love, humility, forgiveness, courage, grace, and compassion. You’ll learn how to accept each another even though you are night and day different than one another. You’ll also understand that you will never arrive at wisdom. Even after 37 years, you still will have much to learn about yourself, about Me, and about marriage. Keep growing. Keep learning. Keep leaning into Me and following My lead.

Now go enjoy the wedding to the fullest. You have no idea what’s ahead…but I do. Marriage is going to be fabulous. It’s going to be hard. It’s going to hurt. It’s going to grow you. It’s going to bring out the worst in you. It’s also going to bring out the best in you as long as you allow me to redeem the broken places and do My best work through the cracks in your life.

Love,

God