Faith precedes the miracle... How about this -- faith precedes the marriage.
I want to get married.
I really do.
And I think I'm almost at the point where I am ready to just say Heavenly Father this is a complete act of faith I need you to step in and make this possible.
I like to have direction. This may come as a surprise to some who have enjoyed the company of carefree Kyle -- but it's true. I love knowing how things work out.
This is not faith. Not even close.
If I were to get married right now I would have no idea where we would live, how we would make money, pretty much everything involving general survival.
But countless times I have been reminded by those who have gone before that if you wait to have all the answers you will miss out on the opportunities for growth and precious experiences that can be drawn upon for years to come.
I was reminded today of a couple who began their journey with $3 between them and school loans to be paid off. My mind trailed off and thought of my mission president who told us about how he and his wife had nothing when they were married. I look at them now and see tremendous success.
Why is our generation so hesitant to move forward without having first "figured" things out?
We are the by-product of a society that thrives on knowing! The Internet is filled with a vast array of knowledge for the taking. Everyone is seeking to learn more and gain more knowledge.
It makes sense that we would want to have things figured out before we move forward.
But knowing is not faith.
"...faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." (Alma 32:21)
And when we are not called upon to exercise faith we do NOT grow.
How could we?
I love hearing the stories of couples who survived difficult times. I want to be that kind of couple. I want to be able to look back and see that my faith grew to face the challenge and that in the moment of necessity, Heavenly Father provided.
When my parents met Reed they asked him a few questions: Do you have a job? no. Do you have a car? no. What are you studying? Engineering..... Etc, etc. But those first two were big ones. The how are you going to provide questions. But even with no answers you can still make it. I had a car and Reed didn't need one in Rexburg. He didn't need a job then because he had money saved for school and no debt or expenses. I'd made $25k the year before and yet had nothing to show for it but a few thousand left on my car loan. I'd played and spent and had fun (and expenses). There have been times in our marraige when we've had nothing and we've had tons and others when we've been back to nothing. Those times of famine have always brought us closer together. It is one of the reasons I'm glad we had kids so early...we never had to think about having both of us working and should we put off kids to keep making money if that makes sense. Sure man that would have been awesome. But we'd be different people and we sure wouldn't have a six and four year old teaching us and keeping us focused every single day. I'm glad you started this blog!
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