Scouting the Land

I remember when I first dreamed of what my marriage could look like. The biggest question wasn't, "what will it look like?" but, "where will it be?"

Everyone has been asked the question, "what do you want to do when you grow up?" But I guess this task of finding the land to build your castle is more along the lines of: "what do you want to be doing as a married couple?" -or- "what would you like to surround yourself with when you're married" -or- "what sort of soil would you like to build on, rock or sand?"

One of the things that held me up in preparing myself to be engaged, was making sure that I was in the place in life I wanted to live in. I wanted to make sure that the surroundings I would subject my marriage (and someday family) to, were exactly what I wanted. I think this is probably why I got so much attention and congratulations over the announcements of being engaged. It is such a large step in life: to find the land you'd like to be in. Making sure all the right resources are around; and making sure your neighbors are who you'd like to be your neighbors; because you're picking your place for life.

I've also heard this concept talked about in the career context as the "building you're leaning your ladder against." I like this analogy, in that it establishes the fact that you only have a ladder, and most likely someone else owns the building! But in the context of marriage: it's most definitely your building.

We have an amazing privilege to choose. I've always been perplexed by God's grace in letting us choose things. I could spend an entire blog just writing on that alone! But at the end of the day, when it's time to choose the land we will build our castle upon, it's the choice we hope we never have to make again.

May this land I've found be fruitful and abundant, flowing with milk and honey.