Wednesday, October 2, 2013

When Harry met Sally


Alright, so I've never seen the movie When Harry met Sally

or, maybe I have, but I don't remember a thing about it if so. It's one of those movies that I assume you are disappointed that I haven't seen yet. There's a long list of those. Movies aren't my thing apparently. 

Now, onto the real topic of this post. When Alex met Jessica. 
...what a great day! ;) It was November 2nd, 2012, and the only reason I know that is because I was able to look back on our church website to see the event posting for that night. I remember saying, "See you Sunday?" and he replied, "yeah." That's all. I honestly don't know if that really is the first time we met. It could have been before that when he visited. It could have been after that when we actually introduced ourselves. Obviously our first meeting is a little fuzzy, but whenever it was... I'm thankful that it happened. 



Alex moved here in November of last year to be a part of our church. He lived in Alabama where he was raised, and God so sovereignly lined up a job at Chick-fil-A Corporate at the very most perfect time, and wah-la!...10 interviews later and Al McCloud is a Georgian. 



Neither of us had marriage in mind at the time, but God quickly put it there. Around December, Al told his brother that he thought he might like me, and they wrote out a game plan with every intention to keep me free from hurt. In January, I told my friend Kaitlin (who lives in Virginia) that I was an awful sinner who had found herself liking a guy and to pray that the Holy Spirit would cleanse me from this heinous sin. (I, honestly, was this dramatic about it all.) In February, when I knew that these thoughts weren't going away, even though I was praying against them, I told Maggie and Courtlynd. I told them that I was an awful sinner who liked a guy and to pray that I would be cleansed from this heinous sin. They both died in laughter and thought I was the most ridiculous human on the planet. They spent the next 3 months convincing me that I was being ridiculous and these feelings were good. You call me overly hesitant, I call me careful. The whole time I had no idea that Alex was praying that God's will would be done with our friendship. We didn't have each other's phone numbers, and saw each other 2-3 times a week. Once on Sunday, once at discipleship, and maybe one more time at a group event. I was oblivious for quite a while.


Alex's brother (Adam) disciples him, and Alex's sister-in-law (Jen) disciples me. I was nervous as alllll get out to tell Jen that I liked that Alex and I were friends. It was one of the funniest conversations that I think we've had yet. I couldn't spit it out, and she kept looking at the chair that Alex sits in at dinner time imagining that he was sitting there hearing all that I was saying. It was comical, and I am so thankful for all of the McCloud's secret plans to make sure that this relationship would be started with Christ at it's foundation. 



Around May, Alex and I had to work on something together for SovHope that required that I have his phone number. That started the occasional text conversation, that turned to the everyday text. Our church has list of people that we are praying will be drawn to salvation. Alex consistently encouraged me to share Jesus with the girl that I put on the list. I started to wonder why he was texting me, but i told myself that it was nothing. It was just a really easy friendship. 



At the end of June, Adam and Jen went to the beach. They asked Alex to water the plants and get the mail while they were gone. Alex asked me to help him water the plants one night. dun dun dun. PUKE! I've never been so nervous for two days in my entire life. I watched him water the plants, we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, drank grapico soda, and talked for an hour or so before he finally told me that he invited me to water plants to tell me that he liked me and was interested in pursuing a relationship with me. It was such a relief and so exciting to know, yet so scary as we both agreed to intentionally pray about it. He also gave me a list of rules that he wanted us to follow (i like to call it rules. it's really just boundaries that he put in place.) It was such a wonderful start!



I went to Uganda, we talked more, prayed more, and then a little over a month later, he told me that I was his girlfriend. Here we are two months later, and we still pray everyday that God would be at the center of our friendship. I'm still, often, blown away by the timing of everything. I didn't want a boyfriend until after nursing school. I wanted whoever was interested in being my husband to pray about it for at least three months (not that they had to, i just think it's a pretty important thing to pray about). The list goes on and on, and I'm so thankful! So we pray everyday that God would continue to lead us. I love praying, serving, learning about Jesus, pursuing holiness, and spending time with him. Alex is one of my favorite men on the planet, and I'm still so giddy over the fact that he chose me to be his girl!



So there is some of the story about when A met J.
It's one of my favorite stories of all, and I can't wait to continue it as the Lord sees fit.

2 comments:

  1. Love this story!!! So happy for you and I will be praying for your relationship!!! Let's do coffee!!!!!

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  2. Oh, so sweet!!! I am reading "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" so that I can pass it on to Noah over Christmas break. (Because I am that mama who wants to know what my kids are reading...) Your story sounds like it goes perfectly with that book. I so wish I had made the commitment to save myself the trouble of "dating" when I was young. Much heartache could have been avoided. I love your story and can't wait to hear more about it. I pray that my kids will be as intentional about their relationships with the opposite sex as you and Alex are being! Love you!

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