Happy Birthday Andy

Andrew Reid Huffman is almost 27 years old! I just love this man and know he's the perfect man for me! The blog is usually a place where we share the mundane details of our daily lives for the grandparents and other blog-addicted freinds. (I am addicted to reading other's blogs too!) But today I thought I would share with you a little of my heart. I hope this entry encourages you in your marriages and encoruages my hubby too as he reads these words. Most of all I hope it encourages us all to press on as we pursue knowing and loving Christ.

It all started 9 years ago on a Friday afternoon in August. I met Andy on our way to the "Great Adventure Retreat" hosted by a Christian group on campus. We became instant friends and he was my first real guy friend who I'd seen passionately loving and following Christ. Four years later, on another Friday night in August we officially starting dating. This was an exciting stepping stone in our relationship. I'd always had a special connection with Andy-we could talk about anything, laugh about everything and I could tell he really geniunely wanted me to love Christ more. I could totally 100% be myself with him and know that I would always be unconditionally accepted. It was his kindness to me that I most appreciated and that drew me to him. There was a rare freedom that I felt with Andy that I knew was a reflection of God's acceptance of me and the freedom I have with him. Andy is steady, I am often changing. Andy is gentle. I can be harsh. Andy has deep roots in the Word of God. I am a newcomer to this fountain of life. But I had some "letting go" to do before I could totally embrace this relationship as being THE ONE!!! I had these ideas of the perfect romance with the perfect romancer. Through God's grace to me, I have slowly come to the belief that marriage is about way more than romance. Though romance is a good healthy part of marriage, (which I really like!) I am more and more convinced that God uses marriage to primarily help us-to help us to know him and love him more and to help us to be more like him. This life is really about one thing: knowing and loving Jesus Christ and our marriages are a big way God graciously helps us to do that! It was only because of God's grace that I, the ultimate over-the-top-in-love-with-the-idea-of-being-in-love-hopeless-romantic, came to believe that this is true. So, after some "letting go" and some "picking up" of these new beliefs about marriage, Andy and I had another special Friday night in August, 3 years ago. Becoming Mrs Huffman has one of my greatest most treasured privileges in my life. The reason is that I love "doing life" with Andy and most of all because I know and love Jesus Christ more because of him. Because of his love for Christ, because of his and my own shortcomings and struggles with sin and the way those make us desperately dependent on our savior for both grace and help. And for the way we both encourage each other on when the journey seems really long and really hard. We know we have a great and awesome hope awaiting us and we can remind each other of that when the days get long. So April 24th is a great day for me. It's a day I get to celebrate and thank God for making this wonderful, sincere, Godly, struggling yet depending on Christ, knower and lover of God and his word-my husband, Andrew Reid Huffman. I love you! Happy 3 days early birthday!