It was a winter evening in 2001. I was sitting in our living room in Nashville, TN when my husband walked into the room to find me sitting in a pile yarn and crying. I was trying to learn to crochet, and my skeins of yarn had gotten tangled and knotted. I was losing my cool as I grew more frantic by the minute when I looked up at my husband who lovingly asked if he could help. Calmly, he took the yarn into his calloused hands and went about the job of freeing the skeins one from the other.
We must have spent two, frustrating hours working on this task, but he never abandoned me. What is even more astounding is that he never complained! Was there something more important that he could have been doing? I am sure there was, but a person stealing a glimpse of our encounter would have never guessed it.
And that is the story of our relationship. When Rod and I met on September 28, 1995, I was a pile of knotted yarn. Another man would have walked away considering me too much work to take on, but not this man.
For 15 years, my husband has lovingly maneuvered around this pile of tangled emotions, gently tugging here, pulling there and gracefully releasing the binds that held me. And with the love and guidance of our Savior, we have been knitted together for all of eternity.
Even now, there are days in which my sweater will pull and fray. That is when I look up and see those same loving eyes, and suddenly, as if by magic, I am restored.
Rod and I are celebrating 14 years of marriage today. We were not the couple anyone in their right minds would have put together, but we were the couple that God saw to be a perfect fit. We have shared a lot of laughs, a few major disappointments, two great accomplishments in the lives of our babies and a couple of down right scary moments we hope to never relive. We have been abandoned by others, but never by each other. We have been attacked, but never stopped. We have been struck down, but not destroyed.
Many have asked what our secret is. I can honestly say there is no secret. The truth is this – we both love God more than we love each other. It seems so simple, yet it is so true. It was that love which drew us to each other, and it is that love which keeps us loving each other even when we do not feel like it. Rod felt compelled by his love for God to release me from the knotted hold of the enemy, and I will spend the rest of my days in gratitude and utter devotion to him and to God because of it.
Who has taken the time to release the knots in your life? Take the time to thank them today. Do it now! Your destiny is waiting!!