As a year of marriage passes, I look back on everything and am just in awe at all that God has done in our lives. I marvel at just how much easier my wife has made my life and how blessed we are to be in the positions that we are as we sought to honor Christ, glorifying him together as a family in our thoughts and in our actions through good times as well as bad.

The good times were excellent. I was working a pretty decent job doing something that I loved very much and never thought I would have the opportunity to do for a living. Our relationship continued to grow and strengthen as we learned to live together, embracing the little quirks that we each have that were never realized before living under separate roofs. For example, I’ve learned that my wife is a tad bit possessive over her pillows. Like, I WILL get woken up in the middle of the night and told to move if I accidentally migrated over to her side in the middle of the night and laid even a hair on one of her pillows. We were able to create many new memories and reach new milestones together, encouraging one another along the way. To top everything off, we were able to announce to our friends and family the expected arrival of our first child!

It was easy to give thanks to God at that moment when there was so much life in our lives. But, being that we are all living in a sin-filled world, as excellent as those good times were, the bad times were bound to hit just as hard. Very soon after announcing our pregnancy, we found out that our baby’s heart had stopped beating. Driving home from the hospital in tears, I was devastated. That was soon followed by some family issues, and a household that was once filled with life was now rocked to its core. Driving home from that family meeting, wiping away tears, I was angry. Sometime later, I was let go from my job. Driving home from work that day, I was devastated, angry, and defeated.

We were down for the count, right? Far from it. In the midst of everything, we had never at any point felt as if God had abandoned us. We had people in our lives who continuously prayed for us and offered support in our time of need. See, I might not necessarily understand right now why everything happened this year and how these things were meant to benefit our walks with Christ, but there is one thing I do know. God, full of grace and love, sent down his only son to bear the weight of all of our sins for the salvation of those who believe in him, even though he himself was blameless. Holding on to the knowledge of that hope, we ourselves had hope in our own seemingly hopeless situations. As we celebrate our first year of marriage, I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to lead our home through good times and bad this first year and every year for the rest of our lives.