We rode a bike trail recently, my love and I…

…laughing, sharing, talking, thinking.  Asking why we haven’t done this more often, making plans for a repeat.

The path in front of us wide and clear, paved for smooth riding, our surroundings a pleasure to take in.  Not always so with each season of marriage or of our lives.

No, our paths have not always been smooth, our surrounding circumstances a delight.

We’ve had rough days too, for there have been incredible highs and overwhelming lows.  To welcome life together has been to open ourselves up to both.

And yet, isn’t this what shapes us into the people we’re intended to be?  The marriage we’re called to live?

On the trail, I remembered  this marriage manifesto of mine :: words of commitment and reflection I wrote over a year ago not knowing the road ahead.

For at the time, all was as smooth as our bike path…as serene as the woods we drank in.

We didn’t yet know how friendships forged through years of ministry would suddenly shift, take new shape.  The realities of a home addition project didn’t exist,

and we hadn’t yet experienced my husband’s work of 14 years disappearing overnight (in the middle of the house project!).  Nor had we walked through days of a major and pain-filled family shake-up, aching our hearts and minds.  But it was all in store for us, just up ahead.

Oh my, what a year…2012, you did do a number on us.

But as we rode, sometimes in silence, often chatting…

I thought how all this, even the difficulty, has shaped our union.  Offered more room for us to be, to grow, to understand one another more.  Growth isn’t always easy (at times it was not a welcome process)…and yet, here we are.

Husband and wife, hand in hand, walking this life out together.

We stand on the edge of new realities:  embracing changes in work, ministry, life and parenting with both a sense of awe and of humility.  For God has done great things.

He walked with us, directed us, made us more into the reflection of His heart for marriage.

I’ve found this to be true:  when I leave the making of my marriage ultimately in His hands…when I sincerely pursue what I know to do and what I can do, resting all else to Him,

He will accomplish MORE than I ever could on my own, manifesto or not.

On this I depend.