Our anniversary: nothing we planned and everything we needed

Column Post by Laura Hyers

This past weekend my husband and I had the privilege of celebrating our one-year wedding anniversary. (I know—we’re babies.) We each had some big plans for the weekend, and fully anticipated accomplishing all sorts of fun and exciting things on our “staycation,” but when it came down to it our four-day weekend was spent lounging, eating, resting, talking, and watching movies.

Neither of us was unhappy with the result, but I was frustrated because I had wanted to make it something more memorable. I mean, a beach day, an outdoor adventure, a spontaneous trip…something! I’d been kind of hard on myself, thinking maybe he thought I didn’t put much effort into it, even though he kept reassuring me that he’d had a great time just hanging out.

Tonight it dawned on me why things happened the way they did: God knew what I needed better than I did.

I’m married to a self-admitted workaholic, and he works to support us, to support me, so I try hard to be as understanding as I can and see his passion and emotional investment for the gifts they are. But some days it’s hard, especially when what I really want from him is time and conversation and things that are taxing at the end of a long day doing crazy sales things I can’t begin to understand.

This weekend was spent primarily being together, snuggling, almost exclusively just the two of us. We talked about politics and religion and families and the future and we laughed and made fools of ourselves and we ate a lot and slept really, really late.

It felt like I was having a four-night sleepover with my best friend, and I was giddy and giggly and calm. Our epic plans for adventure were derailed each and every time because God knew that it would be better for me to soak in quality time with Caleb than to worry about directions to kayaking, or which beach to go to, or any number of other details that can so easily entangle me.

I look at some of the moments of our staycation—our four days of celebrating us and being supremely lazy—and I see moments when the peaceful happiness of the weekend was opposed. I see the too-complicated-to-explain instances where I lost sight of my joy because of circumstances beyond either of our control and I almost turned against my husband and attacked him out of frustration. And I see that God again knew what I needed and gave me the space and time to quiet myself before Him, to regain some clarity, to refocus my attentions and affections on Caleb.

Maybe today, friend, you can look back on your plans and see where God stepped in and did what needed to be done. He always knows what’s best for you. Will you thank Him for that today?

P.S. We’d love to know your thoughts, so please be sure to comment below. Each of our commenters will be entered in a drawing for our current FREE book giveaway, Mothers & Daughters: Mending a Strained Relationship by author Teena Stewart. 

Laura Hyers is a Tampa native, writer, and the newly wed wife of musician Caleb. She recently graduated from the University of South Florida with a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a concentration in literature and is currently teaching preschool. When not chasing a class of two-year-olds, Laura is writing and fighting fierce bouts of wanderlust. She loves music, reading, being near the ocean, and dreaming big over huge cups of coffee with her best friend Lakin. Laura blogs at http://littlebirdmarie.wordpress.com.

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