God of the impossible.

From the time I was a girl, divorce was not an option. In fact, it was on my list of “I will never’s.” After a sixteen-year marriage that was filled with infidelities, lies, and abuse and ended in my ex-husband’s arrest, I found myself divorced and heartbroken. I was devastated that the dream I once had was crushed.

But the desire was still in my heart. I still longed to have a marriage that represented Christ’s love for His people - for a marriage that was as God intended. So, I began to pray.

“God, I know you put desires on our hearts. I desire to have a husband that loves you above all else, that can love me, and that can love my kids.”

It felt impossible, but our God is the God of the impossible. As Jesus said, “With God, all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

My request felt like a tall order. I prayed for someone that had never been married, for someone that did not have children, and for someone that I could serve alongside in ministry. Finding a man in his late thirties that hadn’t been married felt like a big request and kinda crazy, to be honest. And yet, my heart prayed it.

I prayed, but I also waited until God told me it was the right time. And one day, He made it evident and I was confident in God’s voice. (Though it may have seemed soon from other’s perspectives, what no one else understood is I never really had a marriage at all. But God planned to work all of my brokenness and heartache for good.)

One morning I woke up to a message, “Howdy, I’m Calvin.” (For those of you that don’t know, we met on Christian Mingle.) I glanced at his profile and was blown away. He was everything I had been praying down to the “T”. (p.s. My list was even more than I said above and he checked every box.)

Nevertheless, I was a bit skeptical. “Why are you talking to me? You do see I have four kids, right? And, clearly I am divorced.”

As it turns out, I was everything he had been praying for. It’s a really cool story, guys. The things I felt would have turned him away, didn’t. He had always wanted to adopt. He wasn’t scared of me or my story. And as it turns out, he had a pretty crazy story too. Everything in his life had led him to me. And everything in my life had led me to him.

Fast forward nearly three years.

He loves Jesus more than anything.

He loves me.

He loves my children.

We serve alongside one another in ministry.

It is my joy to walk alongside him as he serves at church. I love partnering with him in youth group and in this community. And today I loved hearing him preach the Word - the story that everyone needs to hear. God loves you, Jesus died for you, and God will never leave you, nor forsake you. You are not alone.

To sum this all up, God is amazing. If you get to know Him, I promise you’ll find out the same. And He has a great plan for your life, too.