Dear Husband-To-Be,
I can’t believe I am writing my last letter. I have been waiting a long time for this moment. If you are reading this it means that tomorrow we will be married! As I’ve told you before, I pray often for my future spouse, but what I didn’t reveal was that I’ve also been writing letters. My goal was to form my understanding of the man I was waiting for into a real, concrete individual. That person turned out to be you, Mark Hartfiel, who was meanwhile existing in the Lone Star state.
I give you all of my past, present and future. I’ve been yours for longer than you could imagine. Throughout all these years and all these pages, I could never have imagined a recipient such as you. You are such proof to me that God’s generosity will always exceed our expectations.
Know that I am praying for you. I have waited and I am so glad that I don’t have to wait anymore.
I love you,
Me
These were the first words of a three-ring binder I gave to my husband the night before we were married. As a teenager from a broken family, I desperately wanted to believe that God’s plan for marriage was more than a fairytale. Starting at a pivotal week-long retreat, I climbed into the trenches for my future husband. I begged God to create holy men in the world – including my future spouse. Many years, prayers and letters later – I met and began to date an amazing man. One evening, Mark and I were on the phone discussing his conversion story. In high school, Mark was the typical teenage party boy. One ordinary night, an extraordinary thing happened. Mark was home in his room, not in prayer or even thinking about God, when suddenly he found himself struck by the Holy Spirit. For the first time, Mark truly understood that it was his face Jesus saw on the cross.
He fell to his knees and wept, and his life was never the same. As we spoke that night, I asked Mark the date of his conversion. Heading to my bookshelf, I retrieved a tattered notebook and read the prayers from that week-long retreat. The week of Mark’s conversion was the same week I dedicated myself as a prayer warrior for my Husband-To-Be.
God answers prayers, and someone, somewhere, may be in need of yours.
