Life Comes At You Fast

Ten years ago today, Eric asked me to be his wife.  In a way, I am tempted to say something cliche like, "time flies."  After all, wasn't it just last week that I was twenty-one and super enthusiastic about life, planning a wedding and living "happily ever ever?" Ya'll, I blinked and...BAM...I'm in the "thirty something" club with two kids, a mortgage, and weekends that revolve around my children's social calendar.

I mean, really?  When and how did this happen?

On the other hand, if I'm being completely honest, time hasn't always flown.  There have been seasons that it's dragged and even moments that it's stood completely still.  That's the funny thing about time...there's no good way to measure its passing.

The year we got married there was a Nationwide Insurance commercial that came out with the tagline, "Life comes at you fast."  I think that's a more fitting depiction of our romance.

From meeting in the newsroom to dating was less than five months.

From dating to engagement was less than five months.

From engagement to marriage was less than seven months.

From marriage to pregnant was less than seven weeks...surprise!!

I've always thought "Life comes at you fast" is much a more accurate description for our life together than is "time flies."

Cause life, it does come at you fast.

You never know when the next hardship will arise or when the next blessing will abound.  The good and the bad, the joy and the sorrow, the laughter and the tears - they rise and fall with no consistency, no foreshadowing of what is to come.  Time seems completely contingent upon the rise and fall of these seasons.  Sometimes it flies and other times it stands still, but what I've learned is that the unpredictability of it all is what makes marriage so precious as you learn to navigate it all together.

No one knows what they're doing when they say "forever" to what lies ahead.  And I was no exception. Ten years later, and I'm still learning. What I do know is that even though we can't choose what life throws at us, we do have a choice in how we react.

Love is a choice.

Saying  "Im sorry," is a choice.

Forgiving is a choice.

Fighting for each other is a choice.

Turning toward each other in hard times is a choice.

I'd love to tell you that I've always made the right choice, but that's simply not true.  However, after ten years of learning to navigate this life together, I know that there's grace upon grace to cover those moments when we just don't get it right.

And at its root, it's that grace that makes life together so, so beautiful.  I don't know what life will throw at us in the next decade, but I do know that together with the Author and Protector of our love, we can face the unpredictability with confidence knowing that He's carried us this far and promises to guide us each step of the way.

It's been a beautiful, wild, fun, crazy and absolutely unpredictable journey and there's NO ONE I'd rather have by my side through it all.  Happy 10 Year Proposal To Us!!!!