Today, on Anthony’s birthday, which is also our 5-year meeting anniversary (!), I am honored to tell the story (truly, the testimony!) of what Anthony says is his most significant birthday (besides the first one, when he was born 😉) —
his birthday when he met me: September 9, 2018.
We met at CBS Studios in Los Angeles at an event held by Lee Benton Ministries International.
Two crazy things — truly, two God things — about how we met:
1. When Anthony woke up that morning, on his birthday, God told him,
“You’re meeting your wife today.”
What!? It wasn’t wishful thinking. It was clearly a message from heaven.
So Anthony, amazed yet grateful, decided he’d better keep an eye out. That evening, when he saw me at CBS, he first noticed me worshipping God in the back while he was helping lead worship in the front. Then, throughout the evening, in the midst of his work as Lee’s director and videographer, Anthony watched me and thought,
“This girl serves how I serve; she flows how I flow. This is someone I could flow through life with."
Based on what God said to him that morning and what he observed of me that evening, Anthony knew that I was his wife. Crazy, right!?
2. I had always wanted a photo with my husband from when we first met. But I knew there was no way I could make that happen. I couldn’t just, with every guy I meet, ask, “Hey, can we take a picture together?”
No, it had to be God. But thankfully, God did that for me!
Anthony and I had only been talking about 5 minutes when George Layton wheeled up in his wheelchair with his DSLR camera and asked, “Hey, can I take you guys’ picture?” He took this photo of us together. George had a photo printer there, so he printed us out each a copy, right on the spot.
We now have that photo framed in our room — a photo from when we first met!
God is so faithful to answer prayers and grant desires when we seek Him first! Though these special moments were handed to us as gifts from the Lord, both of us had to be properly positioned.
Four years prior to us meeting, God had told Anthony that if he stayed faithful in serving Lee, then he would meet his wife through her. Month after month, year after year, no wife. Did he hear God right? Would God really ever deliver on that promise?
Then finally, on his birthday in 2018, God delivered.
There I was — right there at Lee’s, right where Anthony was serving — just like God had said.
For me, I had to move all the way from Kansas to California and be faithfully serving as well — doing what God called me to do! — so that I was in place for my husband to see me. Another important piece is that when Anthony first noticed me, I wasn’t looking around, scanning the room for a potential future husband; I was looking to the Lord, singing and dancing in worship.
Ladies, when you keep your focus on the Lord and aim for obedience to Him in all you do, if you are meant to marry, your husband *will* find you.
Just keep your eyes on the *true* Prize, Jesus Christ.