When I was a young teenager there was a family connected to our church that was dysfunctional. The wife was involved in the mission and vision of the church and the husband was nowhere to be found. I remember my dad telling me, “who you marry will affect your ability to live for Christ.” As I’ve watched my friends and acquaintances get married I can now tell the prophetic truth of that statement.

My wife fits every Biblical description of a godly woman. She is talented, beautiful, industrious, hard-working, humble, and modest. She is incredibly smart. In fact, when we met in college she helped me bring my GPA up (unfortunately I helped her bring hers every-so-slightly down). She would never brag, so I get to do it for her! People don’t often realize the sacrifices she made for us to come to Virginia and me to become a vocational pastor. I often joke that she was my sugar-mama while I was in seminary in NC. That’s really not a joke! She had one of those high-paying, corporate jobs that gave her all the worldly accolades. She traded that in to move to VA for a lower (much, much lower) paying job with much less recognition. She traded in day-trips to NYC for a vibrant ministry with teenager girls. Business trips to the Waldorf-Astoria are now replaced with discipleship dates at Starbucks with a teenager. Corporate weekends in Veil have given way to Bible Studies in our house.

Through all of this God has confirmed to me that I made the right choice when I asked Whitney to marry me. She fears God and strives daily to serve him. My wife is by far the more gifted minister. She is more like Jesus because she is more of a servant.

The other day I was talking with another local pastor. We were talking about evaluating personal strengths and weaknesses. I have a lot of weaknesses! However, when he asked me to name my greatest strength, I answered without hesitation, “my wife.”

What has motivated me to write this post? First of all, I love my wife and think she is awesome. I think everyone needs to know how awesome she really is. In addition, she puts up with all sorts of foolishness from me. Finally, in an age of celebrity it is important for people to know the “hidden story.” Sometimes those without the attention are the ones who are most to be emulated.

Whitney, thank you for loving Jesus and thank you for loving me.

(P.S. — One of Whitney’s passions is helping people plan events. Check out her blog to learn more about her event planning!)