Romans 12:10

I’m not sure I can remember the first time I met Ashlee, we’ve known each other for a very long time and made a lot of memories together, but none so sweet as the ones I’ve made in recent months. The day I came over to help butcher chickens was not the day I expected my life to change, but God works in mysterious ways. I will spare the details of the chickens we we’re working on at the moment but I remember looking up and seeing her look at me and we both just smiled. I didn’t know what the feeling was that I had but I knew it was good. We kept talking back and forth for a while after that and I finally worked up the courage to ask her if she would like to hang out. The hardest question I’ve ever had to answer was when she asked if it was hanging out as friends or something more. My heart about jumped out of my chest when I told her how I felt and she responded that she felt the same way. I knew then that this wasn’t just a “dating thing”. I knew in that moment that this was something special and nothing gives me more joy than knowing I get to spend the rest of my life with the person who God has blessed me with. She challenges me and pushes me to pursue God in ways that I hadn’t previously known.

Homeschool graduation is the first memory I have of Christian; the irony is that I was graduating High School and he was in Elementary. He is 8 years younger than me. It is a laughable moment for most everyone that knows this fact. After graduation, my next memories of Christian grew when I started to attend Connect Church, formerly known as Brookfield Wesleyan. I have been attending the church for 11 years and the Searle’s have attended faithfully even longer than that. Christian witnessed the toughest times of my life and has also watched me find, by God’s grace, my purpose and true desires of this life. Eventually Christian left for college, moved away and a few years later found his way back to Ponca. It wasn’t until he moved back that I realized that he wasn’t in Elementary anymore, he had become a man. It was to my surprise that I started to see him more and more as a potential man in my life. God had to lift the blinders from my eyes, because I had been extremely focused and determined to be single. (I kind of took pride in being single if I’m being honest.) When Christian asked me if I wanted to hang out sometime, I knew that if we were to hang out that it would be more than “just friends” for me. I wasn’t interested in “playing games” and guessing if this was more or not, so I was and have been very up front about my intentions from the beginning. Hence the question I asked him, “is this just as friends or more than friends?” One of my role models that I look up to is Kari Jobe. She waited a long time to find her husband, and they are pursuing God together and worship together in ways that I truly admire. I did a quick google search, “How far apart is Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes in age?” 8 years. My role model married a man 8 years younger than she is. For some odd reason this fact gave me peace to continue my pursuit with Christian. He might be younger than me, but his wisdom and faith are far from immature. His desire to join me in life, knowing that I come with extra blessings named Michael, is very evident and I am grateful for the way he loves me AND my family. We are continuing to learn about each other and explore the different ways God has designed us and how we work into God’s plan for each other. It has been a very God ordained journey, but that just means the enemy is even more eager to cause division and confusion. We continue to pursue God first, continue to pursue each other and therefore, we are excited to make the vow of commitment in front of our family and friends in September to never stop the pursuit.