Announcement

Yesterday, I went to see my massage therapist, who I have known for 10 years.

She said, "So, mumble mumble getting married!"

I said, "How did you know?! Has my mother been talking?"

She said, "Wait, I'm getting married!"

"Oh! So am I!"

Yes, folks. It's true. Jacob and I have made the decision to get married sometime in the fall.

I enjoy being in his presence and I have very tender feelings for him that make me want to sacrifice my own comfort to make him happy, which is what I consider to be love. To quote Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, "My neural pathways have become accustomed to [his] sensory input patterns."

However, this is not what make me want to marry him. I have felt those emotions with other men. They are necessary to the process of marriage, but they are not quite enough.

I want to marry Jacob because he wants the same things out of life that I do. He wants to make the world a better place through intentional community and by being a good person. He wants a family full of laughter and simple living. He wants a life that honors God.

More importantly, I want to marry Jacob because I know from experience that he is willing to do the hard work of compromise that is required for a long-term relationship to work. He has demonstrated with his behavior and said with his voice that I am more important to him than just about everything else. Because of this, I can trust that any hurt he may cause me will not be through selfishness but will be unintentional.

There is a great freedom for me in that. Because he is deliberate about treating me well, I am free from the fear that I am not worth being treated well. I can become everything I want to become and do all the things I want to do in that safe circle created by our partnership. It is the closest thing that I will find to the unconditional love from God that gets reflected through my parents and my brothers to me.

And I intend to take advantage of it.

Jacob believes that I am capable of reciprocating this attitude. For that, I love him and will do my best to live up to his expectations.

If I do, I will come much closer to being the good person that God wants me to be.