Thankful for...Shawn

Chronicles 29:13 Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name. I remember praying every night that the Lord would bless me with a partner in life, a husband. I clung to God's promises like Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." It seemed like every night when I would be praying about this subject and actually for the safety, health and well-being of this precious man, I would look up at the clock and it would be 1:11 am. So, 111 seemed to have significance for me in my life, as a promise from God that he would fulfill this dream. Shawn and I met each other as friends in '99 and started dating in early '00. I knew from the start that he was trustworthy, respectable, kind, gentle and compassionate...not to mention handsome. As we've dated and been married, I love so much more about him.

When we were planning our wedding, it just so happened that January 11 (1/11) was a Saturday; however, the church or the reception place was already booked. God had already answered my prayer, so I let it go and we planned our wedding for March 1. I had wanted an evening wedding, but our church has a Spanish City Congregation that meets Saturday nights, so we needed to be out and cleaned up no later than 3:30. We decided two hours would give us enough time for the ceremony and pictures afterward, so we planned on a 1:30 wedding. Our rehearsal night, Pastor Mark said our quartet should start somewhere between 1:00 and 1:30 and I asked Brenda (the woman who was playing cello and heading up the group) how much music they had prepared. She said they had just about 20 minutes worth...our wedding started at exactly 1:11.

I definitely see Shawn as a gift from God. He is so giving, so thoughtful, so self-less. He spends a lot of time with Joshua and is very helpful with him. He always tries to do the right thing, even if it's not the easy thing. He displays the fruit of the Spirit, but he doesn't boast and isn't overbearing. He isn't demanding, and he takes care of us. Last night Joshua wanted to be held while I was at school, so Shawn put aside his own agenda for the evening to hold the Bean. Then when I got home, I was exhausted and wanted to be held too. Again, he waited for work he needed to get done to spend time talking with me about my day. He's an even better husband than what I asked God for...He gave me an even better gift than I could have ever dreamed or hoped for. Today I'm thankful for Shawn, my amazing husband.