My Personal Valentine (Part 2)

In June of 1989 my life totally changed. I was at Ben Geren Park playing softball when I noticed this "sports trainer" who was working for Parker Orthopedics. I was smitten. Allow me to back-up a little bit. Now I will say that I had been smitten a few times before, but this one was different. Pryor to meeting this sports trainer, I had been on a marathon run trying to escape the call of God on my life to be in the ministry. I thought pastor-types were sissy's--some really are too. In the summer of 1988 I got serious about God and surrendered to His call on my life. I began praying for the "perfect" girl. And it had been my experience to this point, that the "perfect" one did not exist. I was getting so frustrated because I was getting very serious about following my Lord but I was also 23 and lonely for a companion. And then it happened--after all the dates, blind-dates, and scary dates---I saw Kassandra Williams walking to the concession stand where her training room was located. I saw her..that's all...I just saw her. Something happened in my heart on that June day. So, I conveniently got hurt...it worked to. We met, she patched me up...we dated a year...was engaged a year and the rest is history. Actually there is more to the story of me asking her out--maybe I will tell that one later. Let me get to the main point of God's special gift to me that I call "MY WIFE."
Kassandra and I will have been married for 19 years this March 16th. I was in the ministry before we met and God knew just what He was doing when He joined us together. Being in the ministry is all we know. We have had no dating, engaged, or married life outside of a ministry to our Lord through a local church. To be honest with you, that has been a little tough over the years. Our lives have always been transparent and to top that off, I am a very extroverted, transparent guy...I know that is tough for a woman too. A large number of pastors/ministers never have a fruitful ministry because the wife has a hard time with transparency and "sharing" a marriage and husband with a church.
Of all the women that God ever created, He gave me the best. I truly believe that too. She is my best friend, lover, life partner, mother to our children, and prayer/ministry partner. She is completely committed to all the above statements---she is completely committed to me and I can honestly say that I have NEVER doubted it for one single moment.
I could fill up pages with braggadocious statements about what an amazing mom she is, but this blog is for me to brag about her being an amazing wife to me. Proverbs 31:10-23 sums up her life.

• I trust her more than I have ever trusted myself.
• Her intentions are to always pray, protect, and provide ministry to her husband and pastor.
• She is the most amazing prayer warrior I have ever met. If you only knew how she hovers over me with prayer, even in the middle of the night and has been known to pray for me all night so I could sleep. Even in those "angry" moments that pastors go through...she makes me pray with her. If I say, "I can't," she will grab my hand and pray anyway...and yes it has made me mad before too...but oh how God has blessed me with a prayer warrior wife.
  
• I am her ministry. She keeps the nursery at NP...but that's because she loves babies. But I am her ministry. She is seen more than she is ever heard at church...but then again, I am her ministry. Most pastors don't have this joy either.
  
• She never complains to me...I'm serious, she is the least complaining person I have ever met in my entire life. I would know, because I am a complainer.
  
• She is not a drama queen..LOL. That may sound funny to you, but drama queen women get on my last nerve...praise God I am not married to a drama queen.
• She has an amazing ministry outside the walls of NP...very few know about it, but she blesses women and children in need...that's all I can share about that.
• She understands the heart of the Ephesians 5 "submissive" wife. I have never, no not ever had to worry about her being anything less.
• Often times when I see a woman acting in an ungodly way and usurping the spiritual authority of their husband or even acting in a way that is embarrassing to "womanhood" I often walk away thinking to myself, "I will never have to be embarrassed because of Kassandra."
• She is my lover...and she makes me feel like the most manly man in the entire world. Enough said there...right?
  
• I have never one time ever thought that we were not going to make it...if anything it has been her who has held us together through thick and thin.
• She has been my strength, resting place, my safe place, and my sounding board as I have been filled with much grief, anger, and tears...and she has not one time made me feel as if she gets tired of me expressing any of those things.
• We have been impoverished and now are comfortable...her attitude has remained the same through it all...uplifting, encouraging, and satisfied. When we were poor, she made us rich.
  
• She is my girlfriend, bride, and gift from God.

I will not apologize for bragging about my wife. She deserves it and much more. I am who I am as a husband, dad, and pastor because of the work of the Holy Spirit in my life coupled with the best and most worthy wife a man has ever had.
I LOVE YOU KASSANDRA--YOU ARE MORE BEAUTIFUL TO ME TODAY THAN YOU WERE 21 YEARS AGO WHEN I MET THE MOST BEAUTIFUL TEENAGE GIRL IN THE WHOLE WORLD. IF WE LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO CELEBRATE 75 YEARS OF MARRIAGE, I WILL STILL THINK YOU ARE SMOKIN' HOT AND WILL LOVE YOU MORE THEN, THAN NOW.