You could say our story started back in 2009 when we met, although until 10 years later, we were pretty clueless that we would end up together! As teenagers, we were in church youth group together, acted together in many “illustrated sermon” dramas, and even went on a mission trip together to Mexico. But one of the reasons I fell for Daniel was that during a whole decade of friendship, he always treated me with the utmost purity and honor.

I have always found Becca to be beautiful and had some interest over the years, but I never wanted to overstep bounds that I thought were there. As it turns out, everything worked perfectly in God’s timing and way. In 2019, God began to show each of us separately, in unique ways, that we were in His plan for each other. Before we ever started dating, we each heard from Him separately and the biggest factor that confirmed this for us was the total peace we had in pursuing the relationship. Every step of the way since God originated this, His peace has continued to go with us.

Mid 2019, long before we started dating or even “talking”, I heard the “still small voice” of God pointing me toward Daniel. We accidentally had dinner alone due to being abandoned by a sibling who will go unnamed. We were two very quiet and awkward people forced to catch up with each other and we began to accidentally discover that we both had the same passions, worldview, and even future goals.

As God nudged me toward Daniel a couple times over the next few months, somehow in my heart I knew with certainty that if it was really God I was hearing, I would be able to just leave the situation alone and God would make it happen without my help. So that’s what I did. And God’s peace came over me strongly. Before, my heart and mind had almost always raced with possibilities, questions and even worries about my future in marriage and family. But for the first time in my life all that quieted down and I was able to trust God and not worry or wonder what my love story would be like or if I needed to be doing more to make it happen. I just had peace. Then, over the course of about 6 months, God slowly unfolded that reality which He had put in my heart, with no striving or worry on my part, but only submission to the process. Through Daniel, God answered question after question that I asked Him in secret, in order to confirm to me that it was truly Him orchestrating our story.

Before we started dating, I was concerned that by pursuing Becca I could accidentally ruin a precious friendship. I was afraid that getting into a relationship would only end in pain. But God spoke to me strongly in a dream and showed me His will for Becca and I to be together. He showed me that I could trust Him fully. He showed me and told me clearly that He knows what’s best for me, better than I know for myself, and that Becca is what is best for me.

After God showed me this, I took the leap of faith and told her how I felt! But first I invited her to go hiking with me. We talked about all sorts of things on the way up the mountain. At the top, we admired the stars together. (She says all this time she was wondering if I was going to EVER make it official.) Then when we were on our way back down, I asked Becca if she likes elephants. And in her description, I proceeded to torture her with ambiguous questions like “why” -- implying our relationship but not saying anything plainly -- for the next 45 minutes. When we were nearing the bottom of the hike, I finally made it full circle, by asking her if she likes elephants in the room. Of course she said no, and I told her that the elephant in our room was that I like her. I found out she likes me back. :) And the rest is pretty much history.

Before concluding this beautiful story, I must point out that Daniel is conveniently forgetting to include the part where, just before he told me how he felt, we heard a rustling sound in the bushes (it was at night), and he ran, leaving me to fend for myself! I, on the other hand, bravely stood to fight off the bunny. But it all worked out in the end, and now he’s always there to protect me from bunnies and all other predators. <3

~~ We are abundantly grateful that God would choose our spouse even before we ourselves knew a fraction of the ways we match. God has continually amazed us as we learn these new ways that we fit together, which we could NEVER have planned for ourselves. We could never have chosen for ourselves so well. There is even peace and assurance that as the decades go by, God will not only help us in marriage, but also that He already saw our future long ago, and led us to each other, knowing who we will become. As you can tell, this is more of a three-way story than just between two people. We are profusely grateful and desire to serve the Lord through our marriage for the rest of our lives. ~~