Different paths, same purpose.

I've had a blast reminiscing over our early years lately. The challenges which we faced, the communication mistakes & the joy over holding hands for the first time. I believe it was actually right after Andrew picked me up from the airport when I flew across the world to come visit him. He was driving us back to meet his family and held my hand at the same time. Definitely strange and unfamiliar at the time, but it still gave me butterflies.
Relationships are just beautiful at every stage. While I look back on those days with fondness, I certainly wouldn't trade where we are now in order to relive those days.

Even though a hug or an accidental brush of the hand would leave me with tingles & sometimes short of breath back then, I can honestly say there is beauty in the now. In the familiar, in the coming home to each other, the waking up next to each other & falling asleep reading together. That never gets old and certainly wasn't something we did before we got married.

I am sure people thought we were insane for getting married as young as we were. There were mentions of why we didn't wait to establish careers or live our lives a little before settling down. Even though I didn't think we were that young, since we did wait until after we both graduated college and I have definitely watched others get married before we did. Looking back now, I totally see that we were young, we definitely could have made better decisions and have grown immensely through making plenty of mistakes and learning to dispense grace to each other daily (sometimes several times a day).

But everyone's stories are different, that's the beauty of being created by God for a specific purpose. We will all walk a different path, marry at different stages, walk through trials and difficulties sometimes never understanding why they were necessary. Some of us walk the path of marrying young and learning how to grow together as we make huge mistakes and experience pain, others are called to other paths. But each and every path can be used to bring glory to Him.

I'm so thankful for where He has me, even though it is definitely not perfect and often looks very different than I thought it would. I am thankful that my heavenly father loves me enough to not leave me just comfortable, but instead longs to see me grow in my likeness of Him and ability to understand grace. Thankful for all that we have experienced, the good and the bad. Thankful for all that lies ahead.

What's been on your heart lately? Linkup and share :)