“The scariest thing a woman ever offers is to believe that she is worth pursuing, to open her heart up to pursuit, to continue to open her heart and offer the beauty she holds inside, all the while fearing it will not be enough.” – John & Stasi Eldredge
The other day, I was asked to share my proposal story. I hadn’t shared in a while and found myself giggling and blushing like a high school girl as I described the magical night.
It was a beautiful summer day in the month of June. I had spent the day with my girls getting dolled up. We had lunch at my favorite restaurant, Wishbone, and afterwards spent the day shopping and pampering ourselves with manicures and pedicures. My boyfriend at the time, now husband, asked me to reserve the evening for him. When he picked me up, he was in a tux, looking immaculate. After greeting each other with a hug and kiss, he escorted me out the door and we walked down the street hand in hand. Now ladies, I had on heels and was hoping the destination was nearby because my feet were already killing me.
A few blocks later, we arrived at the Green Tomato Cafe. This is where John and I first met. He walked me inside and we took the elevator to the Skyline patio. I was presented with flowers and escorted to our private dinner table. To my surprise, our dinner was a repeat of exactly what we had on our very first date at Chili’s six months prior.
After dinner, we walked inside to the Skyline room, sat on a pallet and watched a slide show of all the pictures we had taken throughout our dating relationship. By this time, I knew what was coming. He took my hand and led me to a wooden bench that had a card on it. The card read, “A man who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. Proverbs 18:22.” He knelt down and asked for my hand in marriage and of course, I said YES!!! Marry Me by Train was being sung acoustic style by a familiar voice behind the curtain, which I later learned was one of our good friends.
John took my hand and lead back to the patio, but not before a photographer snapped a few photos. John told me to look over the wall when we approached the patio. Down below was a crowd of people, fireworks, and a huge sign that said, SHE SAID YES! There were loud cheers coming from every direction. And to my surprise, it was all of our families, friends and co-workers cheering for us like we were celebrities. We waved and eventually walked down to greet everyone, giving hugs and kisses generously.
Everyone walked to my house, which was a couple of blocks away. There was refreshments, music, dancing and CELEBRATION all night long!!! We married three months after the proposal.
Fast forward 2.5 years later and you wouldn’t believe that these past couple of years have been the hardest and most daring years of our lives. Marriage is beautiful, but it is also wild and chaotic. When you merge two broken people together who have not dealt with much of their pain, bad habits, and/or childhood trauma, it gets ugly. We have both endured a lot of hurt and uncertainty in our marriage, but we continue to love each other. We continue to open our hearts again and again, even when it appears to not be enough. We are courageously putting in the work by attending marriage/individual counseling, asking our friends to hold us accountable, and making efforts to acknowledge and fix our wrongs.
Sharing my engagement story gave me butterflies. I’d like to say there is something powerful about sharing memorable stories. There’s something strengthening about holding on to good stories because we so often are consumed with bad stories.
Married couples, take time this week to recall and share your most memorable stories before saying, “I do.” I invite you to charm each other and rekindle your love through the power of storytelling.
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Courage From Within 