I'm at that age where everyone is getting engaged, married, or reproducing. Incase you aren't aware, I am not one of these people. However, being a college aged female, potential future husbands/weddings are frequent conversation topics. My typical answer to what I want my future husband to be is a rugby playing, lumber-sexual looking, Scottish, God loving man who is open to the idea of missions and adoption. I know what you are probably thinking, this type of man is super easy to find right!?! No... That's not what you're thinking?
Hmmm.... Awkward.
For real though, while finding that "ideal" man would be fabulous, it's not my actual ultimate goal. My actual goal can be summed up by this letter I wrote to the possible future man who gets stuck with me (if you are reading this future husband; you're welcome).
Dear Future Husband,
I hope you love prostitutes. I hope you befriend drug dealers, criminals, and politions. I hope you regularly dine with homosexuals, atheist, and people from nations you've never visited. I pray you serve others like it is your job. I pray that for you, to live is Christ and to die is gain. I hope that if we are blessed with children, rather by birth or adoption, your priority for their lives is not to lavish them with every thing they request or desire but rather to fully and whole direct them to Christ. I hope that you pray. Now, the day of our wedding, for our kids, before every meal, every morning, every night, for our family and for strangers, I hope you talk more to God then you talk to me.
I hope every decision on your life is centered around one question; is this what God wants me to do? I pray your goal in life is to follow God's will, even when it might not be exactly what you envisioned.
I hope you love prostitutes. Because, to love is to see the face of God. I hope you befriend drug dealers, criminals, and politions, because Jesus said that what you do for the least of these you do for me. I hope you regularly dine with homosexuals, athiest, and people from nations you've never visited because the Bible instructed you to love your neighbor, and when Jesus was asked who a neighbor was His reply wasn't the people you've grown up with, live next too, or are similar to you, it was the person others walked by. See, my ultimate hope and prayer for you is that you love God. I pray He is the center of our relationship and that everything you do is only to grow closer to Him.
Future husband, thank you for being my friend, thank you for loving me, but more so thank you for being a man who exemplifies Christ.
Love,
Your Future Wife
Ultimately, when/if I ever do marry, I don't want people to tell me I choose well or I am lucky because of my husbands looks, job, or abilities. I want people to look at my husband and say "wow, that is a man after God's own heart." That is what I truly desire.
