When I moved to Kansas City seven years ago, I had ideas of how life would go. I would get married at 23 to a 25 year old guy. Though I CERTAINLY knew that guy wouldn't be perfect...deep down, that's what I wanted...someone who "wasn't perfect," but who's imperfections weren't noticeable or inconvenient to me or my personal agenda of making myself the most praiseworthy woman with the most praiseworthy marriage. Needless to say, that’s not exactly what happened. As it happened...I am going to get married at 27, to a 22 year old guy. He's not perfect, nor am I the most praiseworthy of all women, and I expect that our marriage will be a sweet, yet imperfect picture of the comforts, joys, refuge, and love that we both ultimately experience fully and perfectly in our God.

As God stirred in me a more genuine heart for marriage, something became clear. If I was going to get married, I would need to plead with the Lord to bring me a man with three main qualities:

1.) A man of Christlike character. A man who undoubtedly loves and longs for Christ more than he loves or longs for me. A man who longs for holiness and obedience more than he longs for the fleeting pleasures of sin and disobedience.

2.) A friend. Someone who could see me at my best and at my worst. Someone who I would feel just as comfortable dancing in a ball gown with as I would sitting on my couch in baggy sweatpants with greasy hair. Someone who loved me for who I was, not just who they wanted me to be.

3.) Someone who could lead me. I know that leading a woman who can be as foolish, stubborn, and prideful as me is not for the fainthearted. I knew that I needed someone who wouldn't fear me and my sin so much that they let me live in it.

And so, I prayed these prayers and waited...not always perfectly, or patiently.

Over the course of the last year and a half, the Lord has answered those prayers in John. Through many swing dancing events, pickle-ball matches, and some bonding over the St. Louis Cardinals and country music, I realized, John Massey is my friend…no pretending, no trying to measure up, just my genuine friend. Through dating, and the many opportunities he had to seek to please me and my selfish, prideful desires, I saw that John truly did love and fear the Lord more than he loved or feared me. Through many times where he called me out on my sin in love and gentleness, without giving me the opportunity to downplay, excuse, justify, or blame others for it, I saw that John was someone who could lead me.

As the time for engagement drew near, there were so many fears in my heart. Fears of the unknowns. Fears of change. And those fears made John have to wait much longer than he may have otherwise wanted to. But he did so with a steady patience.

Then I was asked a question that pierced my heart…”Do you love him?” We hadn’t said we loved each other. John wanted to wait until he asked me to marry him to say that…a moment when such weighty words would be backed by weighty actions. As I thought to 1 Corinthians 13, I thought, “No, if that is what love is, I do not love John, or anyone else for that matter, I love myself.” And in that same moment, the Lord in his kindness brought me to realize…John is the person I want to love like that, truly love. He is the man towards whom I want to be patient and kind, not arrogant and proud, not insisting on my own way, not irritable, nor keeping records of wrong, but bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, and enduring all things.

So when the time came for him to pop the question, I was quite ready to give my “Yes.”

- Emily Anne

Truly, what we’ve come to see is that love requires far more work than a pair of swans — it can only be sustained and fueled by the love of Christ. God has been kind and patient with us as we learn to care for and love one another sacrificially — a difficult task for two sinners. Through this, He has shown us what it means that marriage is a picture of the love between Christ and His Church. Christ died to save sinners; He gave His life on the cross out of love for His bride, the Church. Emily and I pray that we would joyfully give our lives for one another and draw others to know His amazing love.

We pray that our marriage would exemplify the Lord’s grace, kindness, goodness, and joy through the ups and downs, and the joys and sorrows of this life, as we look ahead to the next, encouraging one another to love Christ most of all.

- John Robert