By God’s grace, I was born into a Christian home where I heard the gospel at age 6. I knew that I was a sinner who could not save himself, that Jesus came to take the punishment that I deserved when He died on the cross, and that salvation was a gift to be received by faith in trusting Christ alone to save me.

As I grew physically and spiritually, I began to sense God’s call on my life. When I was 15 years old I surrendered my life to the Lord to do whatever He wanted. I knew that the Lord was calling me into full-time Christian ministry. It was about this time that my parents decided to enroll me to attend a Christian high school where I further grew in my understanding of God’s Word and of His will for my life. In fact, pursuing God’s will became the passion of my life.

However, pursuing God’s will meant learning to trust Him, especially during times of trial and adversity. For me, this learning process primarily involved several “losses” in several relationships. The first loss, which occurred at the end of my senior year in high school, was that of my dad who passed away after battling cancer for four years.

One of the most significant “losses” involved my relationship with Susan. We both attended Bob Jones University, and during my senior year, the Administration announced that there was going to be a “reverse courtesy” dating opportunity at which it was appropriate for the girl to ask the guy out on a date. Susan (in her own words) “got over [her] extreme nervousness” to ask me out. Even though neither one of us remember exactly that first date, I was very impressed with her; in fact, so much so, I began to ask her out. It wasn’t long, that as I got to know Susan more and more, and that as I began to pray seeking the Lord’s will, that I fell in love with her and I really believed that she was the woman the Lord wanted me to marry.

But the Lord’s will and ways are not always ours.

One day Susan told me that she needed to talk to me. She told me that she did not have peace about continuing to date me. I was very distraught thinking that I had done something to make her feel like this, but she assured me that it was not me. So we stopped dating, and all I could cling to was to make pursuing God’s will the priority of my life. So, the Lord led us on different paths.

But then this past summer (45 years later), the Lord allowed us to reconnect at our high school reunion. We had the opportunity to talk briefly, and I was able to share with her that I was no longer married, and I further learned that she had never married. After talking a little more, we agreed to stay in contact with each other.

The following Saturday Susan texted me saying that her niece had come to visit her to look through some family photographs that had belonged to Susan’s mother. While going through some photo albums, Susan had a photograph fall out of one of the albums onto her lap. It was taken when we were in college about to attend a formal event on campus, and she texted me the picture. She asked me if we could talk on the phone, saying, “I have something on my heart that I have to share with you.” So we agreed to talk later that evening.

It was that photograph of us that suddenly brought back a flood of memories of the feelings of love that I had for Susan back then. As we talked on the phone that evening, I began to share with her how I had felt at that time, and I was able to ask her if she could express why she did not have peace about continuing to date me. She replied that that was what she wanted to talk to me about. She was able to explain that, due to some influences from some toxic people in her life at that time, she did not have the confidence and self-assurance that she felt would be necessary to be the kind of wife that she wanted to be. She said that, at that time, she did not know how to clearly communicate that.

So, as we continued to talk over the next few days, she shared that she had not stopped loving me, and I suddenly realized that I still loved her even more than I did 45 years ago. It wasn’t long before we both agreed that we were convinced that it was the Lord Who had brought us back together, and that it was the Lord’s will for us to start discussing marriage. And on August 30, 2025, I formally asked her if she would marry me, and she said, “Yes!”

I had the privilege of sharing this story with my kids, and every one of them became very excited about what the Lord was doing. A couple of my daughters even told me, “Dad, this sounds like a Hallmark movie!” And indeed it does. The only difference is that this story is real! It's truly amazing what can happen when we seek God’s will and then wait to see how He can bring it to pass. I look forward to spending the rest of my life with this amazing lady and to seeing what the Lord has in store for us as we serve Him together!

S&S