the man i married

Today JD & I celebrate our fourteenth wedding anniversary. I say celebrate loosely because I won't actually see him until tonight when he comes home from the FCA Leadership Camp.

Yes, our anniversary seems to come at just the right time for all sorts of events. We've celebrated our anniversary at FCA Camp, driving home from AIA summer in NY, and at ballgames. Next year, Hawaii?

I wanted to take this opportunity to blog about what a great guy I married.

One of the things that I fell in love with was how easy it was to talk with him. I appreciate how he shares his thoughts with me and is very open with me about his feelings. I also love how passionate he is about whatever he does. If he commits to doing something, he is going to put his whole heart and soul into it. I also fell in love with how sensitive he is. I remember him reading an article to me when we were dating about "invisible people." Invisible people are the people we pass every day but don't necessarily interact with: the checkout lady at the supermarket, the janitor at work, the gas station attendant, the homeless guy on the street. I loved how JD wanted to be purposeful about interacting with them.

JD went into teaching and coaching to be a Christian influence in the public school. I loved that his heart was for ministry. Of course coaching was important to him - his dream was to become the winningest high school baseball coach in the state of Minnesota. But he took his job as a teacher seriously, too. He said that if he ever found that he was giving more time and energy to coaching than teaching, he would re-evaluate.

In 2000, even though he was a successful Head Baseball Coach at a new and growing school in Apple Valley, even though he had led his team to being ranked in the top ten in the state after only three years in existence, even though he was well on his way to his dream of being the winningest baseball coach in Minnesota, he walked away from it all to go into Sports Ministry.

He walked away from the glory of winning, from the status of Head Coach, from the steady salary and retirement package of a teacher to raise support to be able to reach coaches and athletes where they're at, to help them know and grow in Christ.

He is generous beyond compare, giving sacrificially, blessing unreservedly.

He is willing to say he's wrong, to apologize and make it right.

He is gentle and sensitive, willing to help me when I am in need.

He is faithful.

He is growing.

This is the man I married fourteen years ago and I love him.

Happy Anniversary, honey!