The Adventure I'm Invited to Join

My husband and I just celebrated our two year anniversary, which started me thinking a lot about our love and reasons that I love him and choose to spend my life with him. It's been hard to pin-point exactly what made me choose him over anyone else, but I think I have finally figured it out. Of course there are many reasons I absolutely love my husband. I love that he has a wild side; that he is still such a kid at heart. I love how he can be serious one minute and the next minute have me rolling on the floor laughing. I love that he doesn't have all the answers, but pretends to on a daily basis. I love how compassionate he is and how, under his sometimes hard-to-get-to heart of his, I find that it really is a heart of gold. He is so independent, adventurous, crazy. You can't get to know him and who he is by just having one conversation with him because there are so many sides to him. Although there are so many amazing things that I adore about him, the one thing that made me choose him above anyone else, is that he invited me along for the adventure of a lifetime.
We have started reading the book Wild at Heart by John Eldredge together. Although it's a book mostly directed to men, he also writes to the women who are reading as well, and I am surprised at how accurate he is about both men and women. It's a book that not only speaks to me, but also to my husband, who will rarely pick up a book unless it has something to do with war and killing. Go figure. So after dinner last night, we got comfortable on the bed and read the first chapter. And this is where I finally found my answer. Why did I choose him? The answer was in one paragraph. Eldredge writes:
"So many men make the mistake of thinking that the woman is the adventure. But that is where the relationship immediately goes downhill. A woman doesn't want to be the adventure; she wants to be caught up into something greater than herself." (16)
After reading that paragraph, it suddenly dawned on me that that is why I married the man that I married. Of all the men that I have ever known, and the boys that I have dated, he was the one that invited me on an adventure with him. He didn't want to just get married and settle down. He wanted to create an adventure that would last a lifetime. His dreams and aspirations spoke to me and included me, and no one had ever invited me to go along or even shared in my dreams and goals. Although our timeline has changed due to life itself, he still sits me down every so often and asks me what I want to do and if my dreams have changed. We talk about ways to get where we want to be, and keep the dreams alive. It's sometimes harder for me because I am a stay-at-home mom, but he comes to me and talks to me and lets me know that our dreams are tangible and we won't stop pursuing them. He challenges me to do things that I am passionate about even though life does get in the way. He supports me and backs me up one hundred and ten percent when it comes to me reaching my own personal goals. I know that God knew what He was doing when He sent him my way, and although the circumstances at the time we married were a bit crazy, I know that God knew I needed my husband to remind me that as dull as life can sometimes be, there's always an adventure that needs to be sought after and you just can't let life get you down. In so many ways he has shown me God's heart and by inviting me along and joining him in the journey of life, I have opened up my heart more to the even bigger journey that God is calling me to with Him. I am so grateful we have made it two years, but I am more looking forward to the many more years I have to spend with my husband to grow closer to him, learn from him, and together, continue in our adventure that God has called both of us to.

"My lover is mine and I am his..." Song of Songs