Jeremy Hodges from Liberty, Texas says I Love My Wife, Jennifer. He wrote to My Savvy Sisters to tell us all about his magic love.
How many years have you been married?
Jennifer and I have been married for almost 7 years.
Tell me about your life BEFORE you met your wife?
I was a complete wreck before Jennifer and I were together. It wasn’t just her that was missing, it was God’s rule in my life. About the same time that I met Jen, I knew that I had to get right with God. I had been out of His kingdom and rule for 8 years and I had run my life into the ground. It just so happened that about when I was changing my life that I met Jennifer. Her seriousness about doing the right thing was a lot of what helped me have the encouragement to do the right thing and seek God out again.
A lot of our dating was just talking about how church should be and how we could do better than what we had experienced when we were younger. We were both dedicated to finding out what God’s will was in our lives together.
Do you remember the day you met Jennifer?
When I met Jennifer we were both in an art class at the local community college. When I first saw her, I thought she was half black (she is half Nicaraguan in truth) because she was very dark that summer due to a lot of time outside and she often sat next to a black guy in the class. I never thought I had a shot. However, her reading material and her artistic style made her irresistible to me. I would often go over and watch her work and chat her up in between projects. The first words I spoke to her were a request to borrow a pen for an assignment. She promptly told me “no” because the pens were expensive. I was not used to such frank denials from women. Her strength was intriguing.
One day, there were no other seats available in the classroom so she sat next to me. That day, we talked for more than 3 hours straight and found that we had an uncanny amount of things in common, from our homeschooling experiences, to the cartoon we watched when we were young. It was a very surreal experience. After that day, we sat together quite often.
How did you know that you wanted to be more than “just friends” with your Jennifer?
I knew almost immediately. However, I also knew she had a boyfriend at the time and I was still living with my ex-girlfriend at the time. My ex was wholly opposed to the new leaf I was trying to turn over so we spent very little time together. However, I talked to Jennifer freely and openly about my rocky past, even though I did not tell her about my living situation at the time.
I invited Jennifer out for coffee, ostensibly to study, but she stood me up out of respect for her boyfriend (who she wanted to leave, she later told me). As our time together became longer and more friendly, she left her boyfriend and I started to work on moving out of my living situation, still not telling Jennifer the truth. We both wanted to take things slowly so I utilized that time to make some real drastic changes in my life so that I might be able to be the kind of guy that a girl like her deserved, even if she and I didn’t end up together.
How does your wife complement you?
This relationship is different from past relationships in every way. With Jennifer, I can be honest, straightforward, trusting, vulnerable, and I know that she is the same toward me. The reason is that now we have God at the center of our relationship and that removes all the fear and panic. With Jennifer, I respect the holiness of her soul. Her relationship with God is more important than my relationship with her, so I am able to spiritually support her as a husband ought to.
Not only that, with being married, we have the appropriate boundaries that engender trust and reliability that we both need to be fulfilled.
How is your relationship a prime example that true love really exists?
True love isn’t like they make it out to be in the movies. True love is possible when you completely surrender to God’s love and let Him rule in your life. When that happens, He will provide great blessings for you. That might be the companionship of a physical partner, or it might be a life that leans on Him alone, but in any case, true love will be there with Him.
Is there a song that represents your relationship ?
“Close to Me” by the Cure
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