A True Love Story

Sweet sixteen and dreamy-eyed for the preacher's son.....yes, that would be me. Okay, the preacher's son was seven years older and in his eyes I was way too young and a very shy teenage girl. To be honest, when I would see him at church I would say about four words - "Hi! How are you?" And then I would take off at an unlady-like speed because my face was crimson red from the encounter. I think it's pretty obvious that I had a huge crush on the preacher's son. Everything about him was wonderful! He was gallant, treated his mom with the utmost respect, held the door for ladies, devoted his time to helping others and most importantly, he loved God with ALL of his heart and he poured his soul into serving Jesus Christ. And just a side note, he was extremely handsome. But alas, I was only a sixteen year old girl slowly maturing into a woman....

Finally, my eighteenth birthday came and went, surely now the preacher's son would notice I've grown up in the last two years.....or maybe not. Still the awkward encounters, you know, blushing profusely, drawing a blank when he was within five feet. Oh the joy of shyness!
But wait, there was hope! He offered to take me for a drive in his Chevy Camaro before he sold it. Things were definitely looking up.....until he cornered me at church and told me he was able to sell the Camaro sooner than he expected so now there is no hope of a drive. How disheartening for me!

The time came for me to head off to college and obviously I'm not going to catch his eye 1,000 miles away. He told me goodbye and that was all, but I kept my hopes up. You never know what could happen.

We emailed each other occasionally while I was at college, but only because I had an assignment for my Church Ministries class and I needed to ask the Sunday School Superintendent (which is the preacher's son) some questions.

I arrived home for Christmas break and a group of us headed off to Benin, West Africa for a mission's trip and going along with us was the preacher's son. Oh, I am in bliss. Ten whole days together, surely sparks will start flying. After all, I'm now eighteen and I've been to college for one semester. He's definitely going to see I've grown into a woman. We talked, we laughed and we enjoyed each other's company. He snaped picture's of me and of course I "slyly" did the same. We arrived back home and I head to college while he decided to head back to Africa for an extended stay.

Nothing "exciting" happened during the summer, and I headed back to college in the Fall. I then decided not to go back to college for the Spring semester and instead stay home and work at a bank. Things are pretty quiet with the preacher's son and me.

Then during the summer of 2006 I decided to be a counselor at camp. The church had a Doctor available to do exams for all the campers and counselors going. Well guess who was there helping the Doctor.....the preacher's son. And he was the one checking everyone's blood pressure. My turn came along and I sat down in front of the preacher's son knowing my face was the color of a ripe tomato. He checked my blood pressure and told me it was rather high. Oh great! I do not have high blood pressure, in fact my blood pressure is always very low and here he is telling me it's high! I'm sure you can guess why it was skyrocketing. To this day, he still teases me about that.

But finally after years of prayer and infatuation with the preacher's son, things began to take a turn for the better. A few days after the blood pressure incident the preacher's son went to my father and asked him if he could date me. The 'Hallelujah Chorus' was going off in my head. Our first date was at an ice cream parlor; he had an ice cream cone while I had a strawberry milkshake and we sat on a park bench, he on one side and I clear on the other side. That night began a four month journey of getting to know each other. We had picnics, went 4-wheeling and jeeping, took long walks under the moon, and went snowmobiling. He would drive me home after church and we had lots of time to talk and get to know each other. Yes, we grew up in the same church and he knew me since I was nine years old, but now we were actually able to have lengthy conversations without the shyness - it was wonderful.

After nine weeks of dating, the preacher's son told me that he loved me *sigh*. We were sitting in his truck in my driveway when the glorious words came out of his mouth. I in return told him I loved him as well. My love for him had been growing since I was sixteen.

December 17, 2006 (four months after we started dating) - We had our Christmas cantata at church and afterwards my preacher's son drove me home. He hopped out of his truck to come open my door (he always opened my car door) and dropped down onto his knees and asked me to be his wife. And I'm sure it's not hard to figure out what I said, but in case you didn't have a clue, I said "YES!!!!" Then Hosea 2:19-20 came out of his mouth, "And I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgement, and in loving kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord."

We were united in Christ on May 25, 2007 at our home church where we shared our first kiss. My love has only grown stronger and deeper for Travor, my preacher's son, and I thank my Lord for bringing us together in His time. God' timing is perfect and his blessings are forever abundant. "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine." - Song of Solomon 6:3a

"Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." - Matthew 19:6