God told me to marry my best friend, Shauna Kristine Warkentin, in 1993.
I’ll never forget the day we, the starry-eyed couple, shoved our little dingy from the shore and set out on our new lives together.
Like many couples experience, the honeymoon wore off sometime during the first year. Kinda like cheap sunscreen at the beach. You dive right into the water, play around for half an hour, and then forget to re-apply the stuff. And you get burned. Which is what happened in our marriage. True to form, year seven was… uh, itchy. No, scratchy. Or worse. It wasn’t pretty.
God helped us peel out of that old sunburned skin, though, and invited us into a deep, rich, and dare I say it—fairy tale marriage. I remember watching an older couple in our church, obviously in love, and thinking, “I want that. That’s the kind of marriage I want.”
So we worked. And prayed. And cried. And worked. And prayed. And cried.
And laughed.
And played.
And invested in each other.
And kissed. A lot. Muchas Smoochas, por favor?
Today, Our marriage is rich, deep, romantic—and, I’m told, an inspiration to many others. A fairy tale marriage.
Not perfect, not always harmonious. Sometimes harmony means fake. Real people being real with each other bump into each other.
But we deeply treasure each other. And prove it every day.
We respect each other. And prove it every day.
Jesus is at the centre of our romance. And lean on him every day.
We’re becoming who we’re created to be, both together and individually.
Our home is a place of community, safety, acceptance, outreach.
My kids took this pic recently in Maui. Did I mention the kissing?
Long live the fairy tale marriage… in the forever kingdom of our great and glorious King Jesus.
Happy birthday, my love!