Are we a cute couple? Joe and I have been called cute. Aw you’re such a cute couple! You’re so adorable. Well I think my husband is absolutely adorable, and I love having cute pictures of us to remind us of our love. And yes, occasionally I like to wear matching shirts.
Then they hear my husband’s story and say isn’t that amazing, that he went through all that and here you are, so happily married. Going on 24 years! That is a miracle we rejoice in.
But being cute together is the farthest thing on our list of #couplegoals. When you’re given those cards, it doesn’t just all get wrapped up in a pretty bow. When we got married, we thought we’d jump right from broken to beautiful all in the first chapter.
But there’s nothing cute about shame. There’s nothing adorable about walking through the effects of trauma. Not so fast. Neither of us quite understood that the burden Joe carried would become our burden whether we intended it to be or not.
Over the last twenty-ish years, the Lord has had to teach me how to love a broken man. Whose heart carried wounds and scars I would never fully comprehend. But more importantly, He had to teach me that I was just as much broken even though I didn’t carry the same kinds of hurt. We both had so much to learn. The smiles you see are the the result of years of work and walking through our brokenness together. And always believing that God still had a plan.
That’s the heartbeat behind our blog and ministry. Like you, there is a lot going on behind our smiles. Sometimes the couples with the biggest smiles are the ones who have traveled the lowest valleys together. You smile and hold hands and give each other the look not because you have no problems, but because you know who is greater than all of them. You know what God has brought you through.
Those are our #couplegoals. To reflect Christ in the way we love each other. To show that with Jesus, healing is possible. There is always, always hope.
Let’s not shoot for cute. Let’s shoot for committed. To Christ, and to each other. We’d rather hear, “God’s work in your life and marriage is beautiful!” I’ll take that any day over just being cute!
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