9 years ago we sat here

It was a rough, pivotal point in our marriage. We’ve always been best friends but at this point in our lives we had never felt more far apart.

We didn’t have kids yet; he was working in Hickory; I was still living in Raleigh with the fur babies, waiting on our house to sell, with no end in sight. His job had moved him back to the same town where had gone to college, met, and gotten married so many years ago; he was busy and stressed but his career was growing rapidly. Our house wasn’t selling; I wasn’t finding a new job in the “new” town; I felt stuck and alone.

We weren’t on the same page. We seemed to always be at odds. Everything felt like a battle and life was HARD.

He would come “home” to Raleigh on the weekends but it never felt like home because the house was always “show ready” waiting on a buyer to come see our house.

On a whim I found tickets on Craigslist to a concert. A band I had never heard of but they sounded pretty good. I remember going to dinner with a girlfriend a few nights before the concert. We got sushi and I vented to her about everything; she agreed the band sounded like something he would enjoy and that a date night would do us good, so I got the tickets.

That concert turned into one of my favorite memories- funny enough though not just for that year but for every subsequent year since then.

That particular year was so special because for the first time in months, sitting at that concert, we felt “normal”. I wasn’t worried about the house selling, finding a job so I could move with my husband, or anything else. We just enjoyed an awesome concert as a couple, the young couple that had fallen in love so many years ago.

I know God has always been behind our relationship and marriage and always protected us, but I sincerely credit that night, this band, with keeping us close. So here we are 9 years later at that same concert, same band, same venue, it’s become a tradition for us and it will always remind me of that time in our lives.  Sure it’s secular and sure they cuss, but to me it’s so much more. It’s the reminder that our relationship, our marriage, can stand the test of time, and that God can and does use “non traditional” methods to guide us through the hard times. There will most likely be more rough patches to come but nearly 15 years ago I married my best friend and I can’t wait to go through the day to day with him and if secular music is what it takes to keep so together well I’m here for that and anything else life may throw at us because “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:6).”