Meine Liebe

Last night, Bethany asked me, “Where’s my love box?”

“Your what?” I asked

“My love box. You know, the box of all of our love notes and stuff-“

“Oh yeah..”


So, I went to the closet and pulled down the old American Eagle shoebox that we’ve been stashing our memorabilia in since we first started dating in early 2004.

Looking at all those small bits of our history, I couldn’t help being a little emotional.

A CD wrapper from a Harry Connick Jr. album I bought Bethany for our first Valentines Day together. I remember snow, and holding white lilies that were so green it was embarrassing, butterflies in my stomach from going to her house for the first time, her slightly nervous,-slightly excited smile, jerked chicken pasta and French wine.

A coaster from On The Border from our first road trip together. I was nervous that we wouldn’t have anything to talk about on the way to Wichita Falls, but we were talking about marriage by the time we came home.

A button from Riverfest 2004. I had a sore throat and intense fever that were making life miserable. Bethany pumped me full of enough motrin and Gatorade to get me feeling okay again so that I could fulfill one of my lifelong dreams: seeing Hootie live in concert. That was one of those moments in my life when I just wished I could save the feeling in a Ziploc bag and take it out again someday to re-live.


We’ve had an amazing time getting to know one another, falling in love, committing our lives to each other and now raising a child together. It’s hard to explain the love we have for each other without sounding trite or cliché – in fact, it seems as though the word “love” itself has become cheapened. The only way I can explain it is by explaining how it happened.

I was a lonely, aimless man with no real plans or ambitions who had completely given up on the idea that I would find love in my life when I met Bethany. I decided on our first date that no matter what happened, no matter how bad I could possibly get hurt, no matter how long it took, and no matter how hard I had to try I would get her to love me. *key cheesy music here* I vividly remember falling in love with Bethany. Sitting across from her on that first date, trying to look cool, my heart was rapidly loosing ground to this amazing, beautiful woman. Somehow I just knew that God had something to do with her being there.

Like I said, I had given up, and I know that there are many of us who have been at that point or may be at that point right now, but I’m here to tell you that God has blessed me from that first date. When I submitted to Him, trusted him completely with my relationship decisions, he opened my eyes. I said, “Yes, Lord”, and to quote Robert Frost, “…That has made all the difference.”