Of learning to truly love.
To give up the life I had before for this treasure that I found: Anthony David Salerno.
Our commitment at the beach on my birthday — August 11, 2019 — was significant, romantic and dreamy. We celebrated our love and my birthday with family and friends, where we sang songs of praise to God around a bonfire (and there's a whole story of how God led Anthony to that specific bonfire pit!).
We gained premarital counseling from two longly-wed couples — one of which taught us to forgive and to fight battles spiritually, and the other of which taught us to understand each other’s different personalities and love languages and (gasp) not expect the other person to change.
Upon marrying, we progressed to traveling with a film and ministry crew to multiple states and even overseas with a pastor who spoke into our lives with biblical truth about marriage. Also, I got to attend a church marriage class that was amazingly helpful in learning about and staying focused on living out marriage Jesus’ way — the best way! — instead of having a worldly perspective.
The world’s way is selfish — all about “me, me, me” — but the way of Christ is to lay down your life. It sounds backward, but that really is where the joy and wonder are found.
I’m not sure Anthony knew everything he was getting himself into when he asked my dad if he could marry me during my birthday week four years ago, but at least on my end, marriage to this man is better than I imagined. And full of surprises from God as we get to carry out our assignments in tandem (not to mention riding our tandem bike 🤪).
Whenever we have a misunderstanding or don’t quite see things eye to eye, I am so grateful for how the Lord speaks to us, touches our hearts and always reunites us. Jesus is the essence and epitome of true love, and He’s the one who helps us love each other.
I’ll close this post with lyrics from Andrew Peterson's “Dancing in the Minefields:”
“I do" are the two most famous last words The beginning of the end But to lose your life for another, I've heard Is a good place to begin
'Cause the only way to find your life
Is to lay your own life down
And I believe it's an easy price
For the life that we have found.
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