A Love Like Theirs

"Therefore what God has joined together, no one can separate."  -Mark 10:9

In some of my past post I have talked about my life, my family and waiting for the one God is preparing for me. One thing I have not mentioned enough, is how I understood what love was. 
My entire life I have had the privilege of being raised by two of the most amazing, Godly parents who love each other with everything they are.
As a really young girl, I would watch my father, go off in his big truck to work hard all day to provide for my family. While I was at home with momma, she would teach my brother, sister and I many different lessons, not only from textbooks, but how to cook, clean and take care of ourselves and others. 
I always enjoyed the moments when daddy would come home and we would run up to hug him as he walked into the house to kiss mom. 

Most people think that little kids imagine a kiss as a gross thing, but for me it was a small comfort and security, knowing that they were not afraid to show their love.
As I have grown older I have come realize just how amazingly blessed I am to have that! To have two parents under the same roof, who adore and love each other. 
Day by day I try not to take this for granted, instead I study the way that my dad serves my mother, or the way my mom hugs him to tell him how amazing he is. These are moments that I cherish and learn from. 
I am a firm believer in the thought that the way parents train and raise a child can change the world through their example. So even when there is music on and my parents try to dance together but end up just laughing, those moments are so important!
Some of my favorite things I love about their relationship is their walk with Christ as "one".  I cannot possibly count how many times I have walked in and found them, hand in hand in the presence of God. 
There are no words to express what this means to me, seeing both my parents not only love each other but love the Lord even more. As Matthew 18:20 says: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."  Watching this practiced over and over again, it helped in creating the habit in my own life of spending time in His presence.  
Even as my father was laying in bed for days at a time with chronic Lyme, he suffered for many years, all the while my mother stood strong and my dad even though he couldn't do much still showed his affection for all of us. Many times he would sacrifice his own strength to first get up and do something with my siblings and I, then gently rub my mothers shoulders and ask how she was. These moments are ones that were the most comforting. So many times, when things were stressful and chaotic, it was their love not only for us, but the love for each other that kept me stable.
Through the years after that, I think of the different roles they play not only in my life but their own. 
From the very beginning of my parents lives together, ministry was the center. As they met and started dating, the entire foundation of their relationship was on the Lord.

Serving in the ministry and pastors as a team, everything they did was not for their glory but His.
One of things that I find most amazing about them, is that they not only are husband and wife, but partners in all that they do. Both having near opposite greatnesses and weaknesses, God used that to make them both stronger as they fit like perfectly made puzzle pieces. 
As we recently have been going places to speak about our call to be missionaries to Mozambique, Africa, once again I see 

different parts of how God truly made them for each other as soul-mates. As they both are able to use their gifts, and it not benefits whatever project they are working on, but amplifies their talents. Because I have watched them both, as I have grown older I admired them, for all that they do and stand for.
There are many things that stem off of their amazing love, but right now for me the most prominent is the example of what I want for my future.
If someone were to ask what I wanted in a man, my first response would be; "a love like theirs." My parents have always had a huge influence what I wanted for my life, but this has to be one of many that I take as important. 
My father has set the bar high as to how I should expect to be treated, how do I know? Because of the many years I have watched how he treated my mother. He has one of the hugest servants heart I have ever seen, and he respects my mom to the highest level. I also know a little bit of how I can only try to love my future husband as my mother has loved, respected and served my father. 
One of the biggest things they have taught me about loving each other, is that it's not about the bells and whistles but about honoring God first, then lifting each other up before themselves. 
For now, I learn each and every day something new, even as I'm older, the lessons change but I still learn something from their devotion and adoration daily.
God has a special plan, but for now I simply pray that someday I will have "a love like theirs."