28 Reasons I Love You

Happy Birthday to the love of my life!

1. First of all, I can’t help but like you for the fact that you picked me to be your lifelong companion and friend! I’m overjoyed in how you love to be one with me and work hard to make sure we are living “on the same page”.

2. You mystify me. You contain such a wonderful man-brain that works in awesome ways. Sometimes I think I will never completely understand some parts...and that reminds me of how you are made in the image of God.

3. I admire the way you interact with wood, nails, screw guns, and saws. You have taken the time to create such sturdy and beautiful stools, chairs, and whatever else you can think of to make my life and the lives of others easier.

4. You are a caring man. You take such good care of me! You fill my water bottle. You take care of our finances, which would drive me nuts. You take care of travel plans, booking hotels and flights and making sure it will all work out. 

5. You are humble enough and man enough to say I’M SORRY. 

6. You are brave enough to follow God, daring enough to be under authority, bold enough to share your faith anywhere you are.

7. You are a perfect counterpart for me as we raise the daughter God entrusted to us.

8. I cannot count the times you have selflessly taken Joy for me at 5:30am when I was exhausted from a wakeful night with her and let me have another couple hours of sleep!

9. You have a learner’s heart and are always open to learning new things. You appreciate my love of reading and encourage me in it, buying me books and taking me for reading dates to places like Barnes and Noble! 

10. You trust God in such tangible ways; in finances, in health, in regards to the future. I have learned a lot from you in this regard. A line of yours that I won’t forget is, “If we start to not trust our God, where will we stop? If we are going to trust Him at all, we need to trust Him all the way.”

11. I am so tickled with how you like to wear matching clothes with me. (Speaking of being tickled, you like to do that to me too!😄)

12. I’m so glad for the way that you appreciate beauty and have an attitude of “wow, look at this, it’s amazing!”

13. You are a strong leader. 

14. You surprise me with little treats, like dried mangoes from the store on the other side of town, or fried kiliwili, hot and slightly crunchy  in its little plastic bag. You think of creative ways to express your love to me, which means so much. Like the year you wrote me a note every month on the 28th. Or the times you made treasure hunts for me, leaving notes all over the apartment leading up to something special that you had prepared for me. God knew I needed someone like you...and I don’t deserve it!

15. I like how you love to do special things with our daughter. I like how you invite her into your day and are quick to take your turn caring for her when I need a break.

16. You not only do sweet romantic things, but you also take the time to wash the dishes. Mop the floor. Scrub the tub. Help me wash our laundry, whether we do it standing in the sun by hand, in a mini washer in the bathtub, or in a washing machine in the garage under our apartment. You have allowed God to help you become a faithful man who is willing to plod, willing to do menial, mundane small things, for the sake of a bigger picture that you believe in.

17. You make me see the humor in things that I never thought were funny before I married you. (Let’s keep some of those jokes just between you and me, sound good?😉)

18. You walk steadily in God’s strength in times of high stress, trauma or drama. You don’t tend to go way up and way down, but rather faithfully plod, knowing you will make it through by God’s strength.

19. You have allowed God to make you a deeply caring, tender man. Your heart is touched when you see someone in need, and your first instinct is, “let me help you!”

20. You have a great love for sharing with people. You taste anything I make, from a chicken curry with rice and stir fry to a sweet cup of homemade “Irish Peppermint Delight”, and your predictable first words are, “Wow, this is amazing! We should have ________ over and make it for them!” You have told me that there’s no use in making cupcakes if we don’t take them to somebody...and some of our most enjoyable dates have been times we baked together and then shared the fruit of our hands and hearts with neighbors, family or friends. I love your big giving heart. I love the way you share everything, not minding if it’s the last we have.

21. You are a man who has walked through intensely hard things, and survived, and kept a faith in God and His Word. You have also walked me through intensely hard things and helped me to pull through on the side of faith and trust. That has probably been one of the hardest things for you to walk through...caring for a wife who was an emotional basketcase for a very, very long season. Jonathan, your care and faithfulness to me means more than I can describe. Thank you for being there.

22. I appreciate how you love our children with me. How you enter into my loss when I am missing our Seth, and how you let me enter into yours when you are feeling that pain of separation from him. I am so grateful for how you are there to share in my delight in our daughter and her darling ways.

23. And from the first memories I have of you, your choice to look beyond, into Heaven, is something that has always stood out to me and impressed me. Sometimes I haven’t wanted to look with you up There, because I wanted to enjoy a lowly pity party or because I knew that once I started focusing on Heaven it seemed I would feel too sad about needing to be here for now. But thank you for helping me to cultivate that mindset as well, which looks Up and Beyond the present and anticipates all that God has in store for those who put their entire trust in Him.

24. Here’s another one from the beginning. I like your smile. I remember when I first started “falling in love” with you, your smile was the biggest thing that stood out to me. Covering your entire face, when you flashed that grin at me, it was as though my whole world began to sparkle and glow.

25. I like the way you sing with abandon and worship the Lord with all your heart. I love when you lead me in worship!

26. I love the way you beautiful eyes twinkle and shine when you get a great idea. I love their color and the way they are a window into your heart.

27. I am so blessed with the life goals and dreams God has given you, and that He decided I could get to be your “armor-bearer”.

28. Before we were together, I was talking to a middle aged acquaintance who wanted to know what three things I would put on the request if I could mail order a husband. I told him, “I would request a man full of Humility, Wholeheartedness, and Humor, and if I could add one more it would be someone who pays attention to details.” My friend Bob was not very encouraging. In fact, he gave me little hope such a man exists. But such a man found me. How much more grateful could I be?