Life Lessons | Proverbs 31: 25

"Strength and honor are her clothing and she shall rejoice in time to come."

This passage has such a powerful message concerning our behavior as women, and I will definitely talk about that next week. Today, though, I wanted to share with you piece of our story that this verse played a significant part in.

In one of my journals, from my single days, I had written a prayer to the Lord, in January of 2003, asking Him to clothe me in strength and honor (taken right from this verse). I turned the page in my journal and continued moving on with life in general.

In May of 2003, as the school year was drawing to a close, my interest in this handsome friend of mine from our college and career class (Brian) was starting to grow. I would look forward to seeing him walk into the class in his khaki pants and blue button down shirt.. Many times he would sit across from me and I could catch him looking at me..... okay, so the only way I know that was because I was sneaking looks at him, too.

I thought I would test to see whether or not, given the chance, he would sit next to me. I began placing my Bible in the seat next to me, holding it, until I knew it was close to the time he would usually walk in.

He took the bait every time!

We began talking after church quite a bit and other "coincident" type moments began happening which made us realize God was definitely behind us getting to know each other.

Brian opened up his house for a Bible study which I joined..... (sneaky smile) you know I had to join this Bible study!

One evening as I was leaving the Bible study, right before my family's 2 week vacation, Brian came running outside to walk me to my car. We stood in his drive way and talked for quite a while (he didn't care that he had several of his friends still waiting on him inside). During our talk, he promised me that when I came back from my vacation, he was going to speak to my father about dating me.

And then I went on the longest vacation of my life!

Don't get me wrong, my family always had wonderful vacations, went to many places, and enjoyed lots of fun activities together, but what I had prayed for my whole young adult life was in the process of happening, and Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina were the last places I wanted to be.

While we were away, I prayed for Brian every day. But I also prayed for guidance and direction from God. I wanted to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was the one for me. I did not want to lead him on in any way, and I did not want my heart to be broken.

One of our stops was a Christian bookstore. I was just aimlessly walking around, dying for this vacation to be over so I could get home and Brian could talk to my dad, when I passed the bookmarks. I thought it would be a sweet gesture to pick up a bookmark for him as an "I'm back!" present.

The more masculine bookmarks had 'name meanings"on them so I began looking for Brian's name.

And there it was...

Brian meaning "Strength and honor."

For me that moment was powerful since only God and I knew about my journal entry, and, up until that point, I was completely unaware of the meaning of Brian's name. It was one of several times that God showed me in an indisputable way that Brian was the man He had chosen for me.

So this verse holds two very special messages for me. The first being the obvious meaning of the verse. But the second is very personal, and very much a part of our story.

And for the record...... his name fits him well.