...And I Knew He was the One {Lindsay Evatt}

I am so glad to have my precious friend Lindsay back to writing again. She just blesses my heart! She had to take a little break over the last few months and I've missed her greatly! Anyways so glad to have my sweet friend Guest Posting today!

Please Welcome

Lindsay Evatt

from

Evatt's Beautiful Mess

 to

Beautiful Mommy Feet!

.........................

We recently moved.

In our 6 years of marriage, this was our 4th move! I'm growing to hate it! However, there is always one thing I enjoy about moving; the day when I find "the box"! Unpacking is such an arduous task, and it seems to take longer and longer with each move no matter how much junk I think I have eliminated! On my last adventure of unpacking and sorting, it took much longer to go through "the box" and take a walk down memory lane!

You see, "the box" just keeps growing! "The Box" is filled with letters, cards, gifts, pictures, and other random memorabilia exchanged between me and my husband. "The box" is a welcomed trap to deter me from further work of unpacking! With each move, I have usually taken a whole day just sitting and looking through everything. With a recent upgrade to a bigger box, it took much longer this time around! I added all of my journals, overflowing with thoughts and emotions of a teenager/young woman(Me)! I usually laugh until I cry, and cry until I laugh when I read through the story of my life! But there is always one journal in particular, that always reminds me how God works so mysteriously. It's the journal of the year me and my boyfriend were apart. Literally, WE BROKE UP! For some, this may not sound too serious, but to me, it was tragic! We like to refer to this journal as the "roller coaster journal"!

Wesley and I met in church, at the ages of five and seven! We grew up in church together and became great friends, only to start dating when I was 15 and he was 17! We then went off to the same college, and never dreamed we would ever be apart! But after dating for 5 years and two years away from our assumed marriage, we broke up!

Thus my "roller coaster journal" is filled with days in which I really was depending on God to help me through everything, and then other days that I was mad at God and couldn't understand why God wouldn't just let me and Wesley be happy together! Though "young love drama", it was still very real and painful at times!

Going through all of the ups and downs of the break up would be another story in itself, but in brief, we both needed that time away from one another to realize we were taking each other for granted, and depending too much on one another and not enough on God! I was sucking the life out of Wesley because I was so needy and clingy, seeing that he was the only boyfriend I ever had! I also imagined myself as a minister's wife, and he was not feeling the leading in that direction at all! He, on the other hand, had just lost a ton of weight, and wanted to get out there and live life with this new found attention he was getting from everyone for looking so hot! We were a mess!

It took us a year to grow up a little and learn some hard lessons, but we began to work on a friendly relationship, assuming that we would never be "together" again! God had different plans though! Big surprise! :) Just like God always does, He brought the conclusion to our saga, after we had finally resolved that our only hope was to TRUST HIM FOR EVERYTHING! One night, after both of us earnestly prayed in the altar after a church service, we continued our thoughts and prayers in the basement Sunday school classes of the church we had grown up in. We talked for a VERY LONG TIME, and the Lord spoke clearly to both of our hearts! We left the room holding hands, though a very strange, yet glorious feeling! More importantly, we left that room resolved that we could face this world together in true love if we always placed Him above all else in our relationship and in our personal lives!

This May, we will be 8 years removed from that day in the basement of our old church! (The church we were married in just a year later!) In our seven years of marriage, we have brought three precious children into this world, moved 4 times, and haven't had two nickels to rub together most of that time, but God has been faithful! HE hasn't answered all of my/our questions about life and what things He still has in store for us, but we still live with the resolve that we love HIM more than ANYTHING, and we are trusting HIM for EVERYTHING!

Marriage is tough, but when God put us together He knew we would bring Him greater glory together than apart! Yet in His mysterious way of working, we had to be apart for that year to realize that we were not trusting Him enough! Although that year was down right miserable, for the both of us, it brought us even closer, and I am so happy to be serving the Lord side by side with my very best friend! For the 23 years that I've known this very best friend, he has only increased his love that he has for me, and I him, because we love each other out of our devotion to Christ!

We have enjoyed serving in ministry together, and learning the ropes of having a family together. It's not easy some days, and maybe that's why we've moved 4 times in our 6 years of marriage. God wants me to constantly remember! Each time I find "the box", I feel entirely too special, and so undeserving of such a wonderful man! God truly placed us together!

I'm reminded of the Children of Israel! Boy, what a journey they had! But in Deuteronomy Chapter 8, he gave specific instruction to "remember how the Lord you God led you all the way". Some of the experiences were awesome; manna from heaven, Red Sea split, and clothes and shoes growing along with them. (Just to name a few)  While other experiences of life down right stink! They are to "humble you and test you in order to know what is in your heart, whether or not you will keep His commands."

Phew! Doesn't that speak alot about life in general! I'm so glad that I am with THE ONE to face the amazing AND stinky times of life! I will always take the time to REMEMBER the journey too, so we will be found worthy to "go and possess the land"!

The day Wesley and I walked out of that basement, hand in hand, I KNEW HE WAS THE ONE! Yet, everyday with him (and HIM), helps me to know that he still is, and will always be THE ONE FOR ME!

Just a FEW items from "my box"! 

Do you have "a box"?

What type of stuff do you keep there?

If you don't have "a box", I encourage you to start one! Write down all the memories you can possibly think of and store them away along with cards and other special gifts from your spouse! In the trying times of marriage and life, pull out your "box" and REMEMBER where the Lord has brought you from and where He has promised to take you! Take the box out on Valentine's Day or your Anniversary each year and REMEMBER!

Lindsay is a wife, mom, nursing student, and most importantly, a disciple of Christ!
She enjoys blogging over at The Evatt's Beautiful Mess. Along with her fellow mess-makers; Wesley, Bella, Nate, and Marleigh, Lindsay enjoys blogging about the messy realities of life and how God makes them beautiful! They make their home in the upstate of South Carolina, and enjoy serving Christ together with the talents the Lord has blessed them with!