For the Birthday Boy

( I know, I would pick a picture where he looks like he's so worn out he can hardly keep his eyes open.
But, he's my Superman, exhausted and all!)

Almost exactly 4 years ago, I met the man who was to become my husband. We worked a Disciple Now together at church, and though I wasn’t too impressed with his flirting tactics (threatening to cream me with peanut butter and then smear it all over my car), somehow, and for some reason beyond my understanding, I allowed him to use these very middle-school “strategeries” to win me. I like to tell him these days that I must have felt sorry for him and wanted to help him win me! He, on the other hand, likes to tell me that his tactics, however juvenile, worked. He’s got a point there.

The reason I remember the date of 4 years ago is that Jeff asked me out to a Texas Rangers game after his birthday (which happens to be today) on Mother’s Day. I turned him down for two reasons 1.) He asked me out in front of all of my co-workers and dreadfully embarrassed me and 2.) It was Mother’s Day and I had plans to cook my mother lunch.

A normal man who has been rejected won’t try again. We have already established in my many previous posts that I did not marry a normal man. He called to apologize for embarrassing me, and because of that move, he rose many levels in my estimation and earned himself a date (and subsequently, a lifetime with me!).

Anyway, this post is not about me.

This post is about my husband, for today he turns 30.

I want to honor him with my words because, as with many of you who have the gift of encouragement and can relate, I’m not always purposeful in using my gift to affirm my husband.

3 years and some loose change isn’t a long time to be married. It’s a drop in the bucket of life, but 3 years is long enough to show tremendous growth and change.

I married a boy who still had many things to figure out (as did I), but 3 years later, I can say that he’s become a man, and not just any normal run-of-the-mill man. He’s an exceptional, godly, endearing, motivated, generous, hard-working, driven, Spirit-filled man.

He gets up at 3:45 a.m. just about every morning to suffuse himself in God’s word. That discipline, more than anything, has matured his relationship with the Lord. I can’t say I have that same kind of practiced discipline, but I can say that it has sweetened our marriage, allows us to have a home where peace reigns, and has allowed me to truly see him as the one who has been placed in authority over our home and to trust the decisions he makes because I know they come from a place of Scriptural consultation first.

Jeff is hard-working. We’ve been in Georgia for almost two years now, and he has worked 6 days a week for almost the entire time. He’s just now, in the last month or so, scaled back to 5 days a week. We love having him home on this extra day. He’s worked so hard so that I could stay home with our children and give them the love and nurture they need to succeed in life, and ultimately, come to know Christ at an early age.

Jeff is loyal. He is loyal to his Lord, loyal to me as his wife, loyal to his family, and loyal to his friends. I have never worried that he was secretly checking out other women. He’s kept his heart pure and his eyes where they need to be (on me, even when I’ve been as large as a walrus). He doesn’t have a secret stash of pornography and I know, without a doubt, he doesn’t “accidentally” stumble onto any websites.

Jeff is a visionary. This is one of his greatest strengths. He’s an idea-generator. It used to make me nervous because I assumed if he was coming up with ideas (especially when they concerned our future) he was going to act on them without thinking them through. He doesn’t. Thankfully. I’m different. I’m a bit more cautious and like to quietly think through all the options and then talk about the best one. Jeff just verbally churns ideas out and then sifts through them. He’s a man of possibilities. He’s a man of faith.

I could go on and on, and perhaps I should. I just really want him to know, publicly, how proud I am of him, how thankful I am, and just how much I love him.

We’re in the final stages of this part of our lives. Transition is coming and coming soon, but with God’s leading and Jeff’s obedient guidance, all of our concerns will be met.

Jeff, honey, there’s not another man I’d rather be teamed with in this marriage or in this life. You are simply exactly who God planned for me, and I’m excited for the days to come with you.

Happy 30th birthday, man of my heart.