The Patient Pursuit – Guest post by Michaela

Michaela from Michaela Lorren – Life Photography Jesus wrote this amazing post for Song of Virginity. It’s the testimony of how the Lord can and will give us the best of the best, when we choose to honor Him. It’s a tad bit longer than the posts on this blog usually are, but I thought it’s worth it for this one! Such an encouragement to read – thank you Michaela!

• And when you’re done reading here, jump over to Michaela’s blog. It’s fascinating!

———————————————————– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –  –  –  –

17. Hadn’t lost my virginity. Hadn’t kissed a boy. Hadn’t even had a boyfriend. That was me. In this day and age, that’s kinda crazy, ya know?

I had decided as a very young girl that I wanted to remain pure until marriage. I wanted to be able to give my entire self to the one God would bring to me. I didn’t want to tell my husband about all the guys I had been with (and all the things I had done with them…), and for me, hiding that wouldn’t be an option.

My first kiss? That was for my wedding day too. I didn’t want that to just be another kiss, I wanted it to be special. For him. Symbolism that I was giving myself to him, and him alone. That I was his bride.

“How the heck are you going to get married if you aren’t dating?” “How will you know what you want if you don’t try different guys?” “How is your marriage going to be successful if you don’t have some sort of experience?” These questions were ones I heard oh so very often. My choices were always discouraged and looked down upon. Confused and doubtful, they’d shake their heads, positive this gal would never get herself a fella with the way she was thinking. They didn’t understand. They didn’t like it and that was fine. It wasn’t their approval I was seeking. I knew that the God I serve calls us to live a pure and holy life. This was something between He and I. My love life, my future husband, was in His hands. What better person to find my other half than my creator? The One who knows me inside and out. The One who knows exactly what kind of man I need.

The Lord does supply all that we need, and He is so faithful to bless us when our lives honor him, when we seek to live a life for him and his glory.

I promise, I wasn’t completely psycho. Like any other female, I was excited about love. I wanted a relationship. There were times where I was so excited about the future, that impatience would creep in. Times where I would have to shift my focus back on the most important relationship of all, the one I had with The Lord.

It was a meeting about my upcoming homeschool graduation ceremony when I met my future husband. The Lord told me that this particular young man, Chance (another one of the graduates), was to be someone very significant in my life. That I was to pray for him. And as a lil “weirded out” as I was by being told this about a total stranger, I had so much peace. 

We had the opportunity to talk only a little bit on the actual graduation day and it would be several months until I saw him again. But in the meantime, God was constantly leading me to pray for this guy! It felt so weird, to be praying for someone I didn’t know at all, hadn’t seen in months, and wasn’t sure if I ever would again. But I did.

I’m a music teacher. And his mom, “Mrs. A”, had decided to start her daughter (his sister) in piano lessons. I had arranged for her and her daughter to meet me at Krispy Kreme Donuts, where I could get to know his sis before the first lesson and I could treat them to something yummy in the meantime! Right as I was about to leave for our lil donut meeting, I get a text from Mrs. A saying that she is’t feeling well so “Chance will bring Katelynn (his sis)!”.

What. What. What. What. What?! I must admit, and as you may have already guessed… I was extremely excited. I was a little nervous by the time I got there, but we ended up talking and laughing till our stomachs were sore for three hours! It was crazy. The three of us had an absolute blast. And that was just the beginning of many, many times I would see God continue to bring us together.
Unfortunately, not long after our fun at the donut shop, my family and I moved to an entirely new state, and good gracious was I sad about leaving. My hopes and plans seemed to be squished and messed up. But nothing gets in the way of God’s plans. When He has a plan, He makes a way, gets it done, sees it through, and you’re left to marvel at his extraordinary abilities. (Especially his matchmaking ones!) I was thrilled that Chance and I kept in touch, and our long distance friendship quickly became a long distance relationship.

So many things I could not have planned out myself occurred throughout it all. I literally cannot tell you our entire story in a single blog post. But I can tell you that watching God work, watching his faithfulness to little ‘ol me was…absolutely beautiful. The way he brought Chance and I together was more detailed, more romantic, more exciting and faith growing than anything I could have ever found for myself.

Two years later, I am three months into marriage. The man I prayed for, waited for, saved myself for back then, is my dear husband today. And our story doesn’t end there! God’s still writing it. Chance and I are growing together and learning more and more with every passing day. And God’s faithfulness doesn’t end here either. We are watching daily as he shows us grace, mercy, love, devotion and forgiveness.

To those of you out there waiting on your sweetheart to come along, have patience and remember that He honors us when we honor Him. It really is so, so sweet to trust in Jesus. To watch Him pour so much love and care into all aspects of your life, not just your love life. So I encourage you to wait, don’t lose hope, keep up the faith, continue to trust God and his beautiful and perfect timing, and above everything…pursue Him before anyone else.