To the Mommas Dreading Father's Day...

My husband is pretty much the best.  

Ever. 

It's recently come to my attention that people view us as this perfect family without any problems.  

And boy could that not be farther from the truth.  

Our marriage and family have at times been shaken by lies.  And fighting. By tears and frustration.  By broken promises, heartache, and unfaithfulness. 

Sin was welcomed into our home and the remains that it threatened to leave were devastating. 

We decided what would be left wouldn't be good enough.  

Not good enough for me. 

Not good enough for him. 

Not good enough for our children.

Not nearly, ever good enough for God. 

So we put our armor on and battled it out to stay "us".  It was hard and messy and grueling.

But what an even more amazing us we have become.  

Our story is a story of redemption. 

A story of a boy and a girl who married way too young.  Who were selfish and mean.  Who fought and expected way too much without putting nearly enough effort into a marriage that could very well have been doomed from the start. 

This isn't a story of bad.  

Rather it's a story of the good. 

A story of what God can do.  

A story that I hope brings you all hope.  

Because no matter what you are going through, we all deserve love.  God designed us to crave love.  To need love. 

Because God is love.  

And you just need Him.  

To be honest there were times when I never wanted to look at this man again in my life.  When he  had been kicked out and forbade back.  

But Christ said that wouldn't be the end of the story and after he knocked on my heart I opened the door and Wit found his way back to me. 

And now. 

Boy howdy am I over the moon for this boy. 

He fathers better than I could have expected.  And loves more than I could have hoped for.  He works and strives and sweats and strips (paint!) more than I could even ask of someone to do. 

And so for those of you with husbands like mine...husbands who are human and not perfect and sometimes falter, please celebrate them anyway.  Overlook the trash not taken out (again!) but never overlook the overtime he picked up so you could get that zoo membership for the kids.  Overlook the baseball watching but never overlook that he goes up to tuck the kids into bed and assures them with the safety and warmth that only a Daddy can bring. 

For those of you who are apart from your husbands and your babies Daddy's...either emotionally or physically or both:  Please don't give up hope.  God is hope and Jesus offers love and miracles and a redemption story that can be better than you ever hoped it could be.  Please don't give up. Don't stop praying.  Don't stop loving and crying and feeling alive.  

I hope our story gives you hope. I hope you know that I was apart for a Father's Day from my husband and didn't want him back and didn't know how we'd ever get on.  

And now this man makes me swoon.  He makes me laugh like when we were dating.  He makes me want to be better because that's what he deserves.  And I never, ever, ever thought that it could be this good.  

Ours is a story of redemption.