The worship team didn't know this when they chose that last song, but today is the ninth anniversary of our wedding day.

Like a bride waiting for her groom.

And as I thought back over these last nine years

and all of God's faithfulness and kindness to me and Fay in our marriage.

A story came to mind about a particularly terrible fight that we had. And that felt relevant for my assignment, wisdom in

relationships. Our first year of marriage was hard.

I don't know if it was harder than yours or harder than most

because I've never been married to anyone else,

much less to any of you.

But it was hard.

We fought way more than either of us expected to fight.

We were very in love, and we made a lot of good memories to that year.

But we were also very different.

We are very different. We are very different and we were still deeply

sinful. For my part I was naive and selfish and I wasn't ready to lead her well in marriage.

And on top of all that, she was from sunny, warm Los Angeles. And so she was now 1900 painful miles from everyone and

everything that she knew and loved. So we fought a lot. And it came to a head that first fall 2015. I knew

how home six you was. I could see that, how much she missed her family and friends and the beach.

And so I decided I'm going to send her back to California without me less than six months into marriage.

This is already a bad idea.

You're not married yet.

I also decided to surprise her, which was an even worse idea.

...