The Man Of My Dreams.

I've been meaning to write this for a few days now, but life has a sneaky way of getting away from me sometimes. 

Monday was my husband and i's first anniversary. (For those of you on Facebook, that's old news. I might as well have put it on a billboard off I-65, for goodness sake. What can I say? Only one first time.) Originally, my husband [Rodney] had some covert first anniversary trip up his sleeve, which I knew just enough about to be very excited for. But a few days before our annie, Rodney's uncle Max passed away and Rodney was asked to be a pallbearer and sing at the funeral. Consequently, this nixed our anniversary plans. Now, you might think I got annoyed or selfishly consumed with how this affected me and what I wanted. And a few years ago, it WOULD HAVE. No doubt. Instead, I realized that this was so symbolic of life and marriage. And although I was sad for Rodney's family, I was grateful in a way. Grateful for the curveballs that God throws my way. Because if He was throwing fastballs straight down the middle all day long, how boring would that be? How little faith would I have if I knew exactly what I was getting all the time? Which then made me think about Rodney....

Here we go.

Some girls grow up with a vision--a mental portrait--of what their husband will be like. This is not speculation, but a FACT. FACT because I witnessed it first hand when I came to college and began hearing about these expectations and crazy criteria that my peers had for the man they would marry. And although I can't say honestly that I had any specific criteria like that (ie. will be leadership in a church, will have a degree in such and such, will want to workout with me, will be taller than me, will know what he's doing with his life, will have x amount of dollars, etc)...I MUST have been guilty of some vague mold of what "the man of my dreams" looked like inside and out. Because I know what it didn't look like....Rodney Clawson. 

(Here comes my point.)

I thank God everyday that I didn't get the man of my dreams. No, I got something MUCH better. Because if I did, I would probably be the most self-righteous, prideful, controlling, much-less-faithful, much-more-judgmental, narrow-minded woman in all of Nashville. Those of you who really know me, know the "why" behind all of these adjectives I listed, so I won't elaborate...cause this is a blog, not an encyclopedia. I am so thankful that God has given me a man perfectly suited for ME...way better than than the one in MY dreams. And, for that alone, I embrace the unexpected. I embrace the glitch in the first anniversary plans. I embrace the winding road ahead. I embrace the not knowing what ELSE He has planned that is bigger than my human-sized, short-sighted eyes can see. 

So here's to an amazing first year and a forever of NOT knowing....