Lifelore

I recently read an article about a 19 year old bride-to-be. The article talked about how she felt it was regarded as socially unacceptable at age 19, to be getting married. I suddenly was flooded with memories because I, too, was a 19 year old bride.

I always knew that my life calling was to be a wife and mother. There was no doubt about it. When I met the man of my dreams, Tim, I knew that he was the one for me and I was awestruck at first sight.

Lucky for me, Tim was also interested in me. If he hadn’t have been, I would have felt the biggest blow to my heart that I could have ever imagined. Shortly after we started dating, it was clear to both of us that we were meant to be together forever. We started dating in May, were engaged in August, and got married in December! We couldn’t wait to get our future together started.

Both his parents and mine were totally supportive of us getting married and spending our futures together. It was other people, outside of our families, who were talking behind our backs. I remember a sales clerk at one of the stores where we had our wedding registry telling us that people had wondered if there was a “special reason” that we were getting married so soon after even meeting one another. Obviously, the reason was that we loved one another and had no doubts that we were meant for one another.

It is almost 22 years later and Tim and I are happier than ever. In those 22 years we have had some rough patches, but never any that had anything to do with our marriage. All of the ups and down have been due to outside circumstances and changes in life, but we would not change those for anything. Those events have caused us to grow and learn in ways that we could not have and would not have without them. I am definitely not the same person that I was when we got married. I, for one, am happy about that. I am definitely more sensitive and can feel the hearts of people better than I could at age 19. Certain obstacles in our 22 years of marriage, have made both Tim and I cautious about certain things and that is to our advantage. There is a lot to be said for the bumps along the way as they make us stop, think, and make better and more informed decisions down the path. At certain points we have stopped and even made a complete “about face” to avoid going in a direction that could have been a major mistake.

To the 19 year old future bride that wrote the article that I spoke of in the first paragraph: tune out the naysayers and get ready for the greatest ride of your life. You are about to marry the man who will be your best friend, and with God’s help, the 2 of you can conquer anything that comes your way. As long as you work as a team, you will have a great marriage!

Written by Kathryn Conrad