Collierville United Methodist Church

Wedding Day

VFW 

Reception

Our Wedding

How it Began

Ours is a story of good versus evil, of enduring love, and the Great Goodness of God.&nbsp;It started with me, well, kind of with both of us, although Steve didn’t even know I existed at the time.&nbsp;I was 15, and Steve was 18.&nbsp;We were both attending sister small Christian high schools.&nbsp;&nbsp;It seemed at the time that all the small Christian schools were intertwined with each other to some degree which explains why I had the occasion to hear about a certain fine young man from another high school.&nbsp;What I heard about him not only intrigued me, but it was then – that moment that I heard about him – that God began working on my heart to fall in love with him.&nbsp;You see, this young man had experienced a great loss; the loss of his father.&nbsp;He had carried a good deal of the financial load for his family the last year of his dad’s life, and when his dad passed away, he took the news in such an exemplary manner that his testimony was spoken of by all who knew him. This is what I first heard of him. So there I was with the seeds of love and admiration already planted in my heart. However, there was precious little I could do about it at the time.&nbsp;Although I was actually transferring to the high school Steve attended, he was graduating from it the year before I would arrive.&nbsp;&nbsp;To complicate matters, he was also dating someone else and would be for another two or three years! As God would have it, I at least got a glimpse of this fellow.&nbsp;A sibling who was planning to attend the same college as Steve the following school year after their graduation, contacted him and asked him to visit our home.&nbsp;Perhaps it was to get an idea of how to plan for college; I do not really know the reason. However, I, being shy at the time, stole a glimpse of this young man from my mother’s bedroom window.&nbsp;It was at that moment that I decided he was the kind of man I wanted to marry someday.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The following fall, I went on to the high school Steve had previously attended.&nbsp;There I continued to hear about this great young man with such integrity and character.&nbsp;There I continued to grow in my respect and admiration for him.&nbsp; Finally, 4 years after I had seen him, heard of him, I went to the same university Steve attended. My reason for attending there was not, however, related to my desire to know him more or other reasons connected with my admiration for him; and he was continuing a relationship with his high school girlfriend.&nbsp; Then in my junior year, I heard that Steve was free to date. He and his long-time girlfriend had parted ways. It was also providential that the university we attended provided a Sadie-Hawkins day.&nbsp;This is a day in which the girl actually asks a guy for a date!&nbsp;I got over my extreme nervousness and asked Steve to accompany me.&nbsp;He agreed and before long, we started seeing each other on a regular basis.&nbsp;I knew that I not only loved him; I respected and admired him. I had him up on the highest pedestal .... one that I felt was far too high for me.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;You see, I had a nemesis.&nbsp;Someone who had worked strategically on my young mind and for a long time to destroy my self-worth.&nbsp;Not only did this person attack me, but he endeavored to attack this relationship in my mind and plant great, overwhelming fears in my heart.&nbsp;This led me to do what I have since claimed as “the greatest mistake I ever made.”&nbsp;I broke it off with Steve.&nbsp;My thoughts were that if you love someone enough, you want the best for them.&nbsp;Since there was no way for me to be the best for him, I needed to “set him free” so that he could do much better than me.&nbsp;&nbsp;A couple of years passed and I learned that Steve married.&nbsp;I was truly heartbroken but knew that I must choose a life that was in God’s will though I felt displaced with nothing else being a good “fit.”&nbsp;By this time, I had seen through the motivations of my nemesis and being without Steve continued to haunt me from time to time.&nbsp;Over the years, and they have been many, I was able to pour my heart out to the Lord and find overwhelming grace and joy in Him.&nbsp;He truly became my&nbsp;friend, my father, and confidant.&nbsp;He gave me purpose and fulfillment.&nbsp;However, as much as I tried, I could never rid my mind and heart of the love I still had for Steve.&nbsp;Whenever I thought I had a handle on it, I would then dream about him or hear about him in some way.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;So, I continued to pray.&nbsp;I prayed that God would help me deal with my pain. prayed for Steve. I even prayed that if my still love-stricken heart had no Godly purpose, God would remove my feelings for Steve.... but He didn’t.&nbsp;I prayed that if God had no intention of bringing Steve back to me, He would take away the thoughts, dreams, love I had for him.&nbsp;Then, something happened.&nbsp;After my daily prayer time, I was going about my business in the house, doing regular chores etc., when it seemed to me that God spoke to me... inside my head.&nbsp;His exact words were, “I am bringing Steve back to you.”&nbsp;I immediately questioned the source of this “voice.”&nbsp;Was it my own heart speaking?&nbsp;Was it truly God (He HAD spoken to me&nbsp;in this way on other occasions about other things that had been actual and come to fruition).&nbsp;Then another thing happened...a class reunion.&nbsp;I got word that our high school alma mater was planning a reunion.&nbsp;I wavered back and forth about my decision to go and finally decided it would be a good idea. I even took a “date,” a guy friend who had agreed to accompany me.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Not long after I arrived, I saw Steve.&nbsp;The moment our eyes met, I thought I was melting from the inside out.&nbsp;I hoped it wasn’t obvious. Then my “date” and I sat down with Steve and his classmates... my former classmates didn't attend.&nbsp;All of us talked and got caught up on the things in our lives.&nbsp;My date wanted to step outside for a minute which turned out to be providential.&nbsp;It was then that Steve and I engaged more in conversation and I found out the story of his life and how it led him to be single again.&nbsp;You can only imagine my thoughts.&nbsp;I was truly sad for his loss but something inside of me turned over and over as I remembered the statement I felt God had spoken to my heart.&nbsp;I made a decision... it was hard (and scary) for me to do, but I asked Steve if we might exchange information and stay in touch.&nbsp;He agreed.... I was relieved.&nbsp;&nbsp;So the next few days, I tried to stoke the fires by texting Steve.&nbsp;No go..&nbsp;He didn’t take the bait.&nbsp;I found out later that he was concerned about pursuing anything since, 1,&nbsp;I had had a date with me at the reunion, and 2,&nbsp;he wanted to make sure he wasn’t in “rebound’ mode.&nbsp; But then... my niece called from Knoxville and asked if she could come and go through all the family albums I had and get her baby pictures.&nbsp;I was delighted to do that and she and I sifted through album after album.&nbsp;As I was picking up the last huge album, it came apart and a picture from it fell to my lap.&nbsp;I was SHOCKED.&nbsp;It was an actual picture of me and Steve when we were in college and attending an artist series.&nbsp;&nbsp;I sent it to him and that touched his heart in such a way that he remembered us, our wonderful relationship, and the love he had for me back then.&nbsp;It was as though this picture closed the gap of so many years. After I sent the picture, we texted.&nbsp;I reminded him of how we met... how forward I'd felt in asking HIM out.&nbsp;He responded, telling me how flattered he had been.&nbsp;I responded back saying that I was going to be forward again and asked if we might set aside a good bit of time to talk... that I had so much on my heart I needed to tell him.&nbsp;He agreed and I prayed!&nbsp;&nbsp;I decided to unload the whole story and just deal with the fall out.&nbsp;I told him about why I’d ended the relationship, how I still felt - had continued to feel all these years, and how life is just too short to not tell people what’s on your heart.&nbsp;I asked him to forgive me because I believed I’d done wrong.&nbsp;I let him know that I was good with whatever he thought but that I had to get it all off of my heart. He was so good to accept what I said.&nbsp;He said that the picture had prepared his heart and even then, he wanted to tell me how much he had loved me back then but wanted to be sure he wasn’t rebounding.&nbsp;It took us only a few days of talking before we realized that we were led back together providentially.&nbsp;God had done a wonderful thing.&nbsp;Now we have the privilege of being together forever. And now we can and want to be a reminder to others that God is good, so VERY GOOD, and His purpose is secure in the lives of those who love and serve HIM.&nbsp;Indeed, as said Jim Eliot, "God always gives His best to those who leave the choice with Him." May our story encourage you to love and serve the Lord and to trust in His undying, unconditional love for you.

Her Story

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.&nbsp;I knew that the Lord was calling me into full-time Christian ministry.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;For me, this learning process primarily involved several “losses” in several relationships.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;She told me that she did not have peace about continuing to date me.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;So we stopped dating, and all I could cling to was to make pursuing God’s will the priority of my life.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;While going through some photo albums, Susan had a photograph fall out of one of the albums onto her lap.&nbsp;It was taken when we were in college about to attend a formal event on campus, and she texted me the picture.&nbsp;She asked me if we could talk on the phone, saying, “I have something on my heart that I have to share with you.”&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;She replied that that was what she wanted to talk to me about.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;A couple of my daughters even told me, “Dad, this sounds like a Hallmark movie!”&nbsp;And indeed it does.&nbsp;The only difference is that this story is real!&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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!

Susan and Steve

Susan and Steve

Things to Do

Things to Do coming soon!