My Wife is My Crown

Back in 1985, when I was still single, I had an interesting experience during a church service. In the middle of his sermon, the pastor stopped preaching, walked right up to me and said, “I have a word from the Lord for you. I believe God has your mate picked out for you, and she’s going to have a heart for the things of God. She’ll be your crown.”

Needless to say, I was a bit taken aback. In fact, I looked over my shoulder to make sure he wasn’t speaking to someone else. He was talking to me, all right, although I’m not sure he even knew my name. We’d never discussed my dating life – or lack thereof, since I hadn’t dated for some time. Oh, great, I thought. I’m not coming back to this church again. I don’t think God still sends messages this way.

Three days later, I met Jean for the first time, at a friend’s wedding. With no thought of what the pastor had told me, I said to a friend, “I think that’s the woman I’m going to marry.”

Still, I didn’t pursue dating her. In fact, our first date didn’t happen for several months. But when it did happen, God confirmed something in both of our hearts. That night, as we later learned by comparing our “first date impressions,” we both knew that we were going to marry one another. Isn’t that amazing?

While we got off to a wonderful start, married life wasn’t always rosy. Both of us had things in our past that threatened to derail our relationship (Jean had battled depression, for example, while my own childhood was completely devoid of positive male role models). But we were determined to make it work, with God’s help. That bedrock of commitment sparked a desire in us to get Christian counseling, which ultimately helped untangle the difficulties in our backgrounds that were weighing us down.

That was 23 years ago. As a result of prayer, biblical counsel and, ultimately, the grace of God, our marriage today is stronger than ever. God has filled our lives with many blessings, including two wonderful boys. Jean is a godly wife and wonderful mother to our children. She truly is “my crown.” That pastor was right!

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage, relationships, wife October 24, 2008 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura