Meeting my wife

Tonight at Men's Bible Study, we talked about love from 1 John 4:7-21.  These are great verses on why we, as Christians, are called to love God and others.  It's pretty simple.  We love because God first loved us.  We love others because God first loved us.  We are able to love because God first loved us.  So, what does this have to do with meeting my wife?  At the beginning, some of shared how we met our wives and knew that it was "love."  Sheryl and I met in a Calculus class.  The interesting thing was it was my last class for my bachelor's degree (which took me ten years to get, by the way).  Sheryl was out of work and trying to get into medical school.  She had to have the class before she could take the MCAT.  So, we just got to talking between classes and hit it off, sort of. Between classes, she would look at me and cross her eyes.  I thought, "She's kinda cute, but her eyes are a little off."   Really, we were just friends and study partners at the beginning.  Somehow, though, she figured out how to come to my college graduation with my parents so I would have to drive her home.  That night, we had our first "date", Snow White at the dollar theatre. Actually, I had called several people to come, but no one else could make it.  About a week later, my parents took me to California for a graduation gift.  While walking along one of the beaches one night near San Francisco, I thought to myself, "When Sheryl and I get married, I am going to bring her here on our honeymoon."  Wow, where did that come from?  Somehow I knew she was the one.  We started dating shortly after I returned and I asked her to marry me about eight months later.  She was totally surprised.  In fact, she made me wait a week so she could pray about it and then made me ask her again.  What really got her was that I had already asked her parents if I could marry her.  I had decided that, if she was the one, I was going to do it right.  I even bought the wedding ring before I asked her dad.  That was 17 years ago.  Before we married, one of the tenets of our marriage was that divorce was not an option.  No matter what, it was never to be an option. And it never will.  


I enjoy sharing this story with others because I believe beyond a shadow that God brought us together for a purpose and his purposes are perfect.  I sure am glad I was listening.