By John Bosio
I have never met a couple, regardless of how long they have been married, who did not cherish sharing memories of their beginning and of the key moments in their life together. Every couple is a unique story. You and your spouse are a story. I invite you to celebrate the journey you have traveled thus far together by recalling your story.
The song from the movie The Love Story. sung by Andy Williams, comes to mind: “Where do I begin to tell the story of a love…”
If I asked you to tell me your love story where would it begin? Would you start telling your story from your wedding day or would you go back to a time when you first met, or even to a time before you ever knew each other?
Each year for the past seven years, when I go to Thailand on business, I am reminded of our story, Teri’s and mine. While in Bangkok, I visit the Church of the Holy Redeemer, a Catholic church built to resemble a Buddhist temple. The first time I went there, I sat in one of the back rows waiting for Sunday Mass to begin. As I was watching people coming and going, I noticed a young girl kneeling by the icon of Mary located on the left side of the main altar. She had brought a bouquet of fresh tropical flowers and she was pausing briefly to pray. Her slender figure and dark hair reminded me of a young girl who, thirty-three years before, knelt in front of the same icon to pray. She was praying for her family and for her friends. And she was also praying for a person she did not yet know. At the young age of thirteen, the girl knew that someday she would marry so she started praying for her future husband, whoever he might be and wherever he might be in the world. That girl was Teri. Her father was in the Air Force and he was stationed in Bangkok during the Vietnam War.
That is the beginning of our story.
Did you ever pray for your future spouse before the two of you actually met? Have you ever paused to think about the sequence of events that brought the two of you together?
When I think about the twists and turns that Teri’s and my personal stories took in the years before we actually met, I always marvel at how God works in mysterious ways to prepare us to be a gift to each other.
Where does your story begin?
Question for Reflection: Does God have a place in your story?
John Bosio is a former marriage and family therapist, director of religious education, and diocesan family life coordinator. He and his wife, Teri, wrote Joined by Grace, a marriage preparation program from Ave Maria Press.
