My husband and I met January 7^th 2015 we started dating March 2015 and were engaged by October by May we were married. I was 19 and he was 25 when I met him and three days after turning 21  I became his bride. What I never expected was the way people would comment in that October of our engagement. I don’t want to give validation of any of the comments, but I will say one thing they hurt. Naively I wanted to believe that everyone would be happy and that simply wasn’t the case. For those of you getting married before society expects you to I want to remind you of just a few things.

It is possible to be young and know who you are- I had always been an old soul. I didn’t enjoy people my own age and found the most enjoyment talking to women in their sixties from the time I was around nine years old. I knew what I wanted from my life and I knew that God would lead me in the right direction. Trust the Lord, not your age, not society.

Get married because you found a Godly man NOT because the timing is right.-  Whether I was eighteen or eighty my motivation to get married was to find a man who would lead me. Sure there are more convenient stages in life to  plan a wedding and start your lives together, but once you find a Godly man pursue God’s timing not mans.

Your story is beautiful- When we first got engaged more than anything I loved telling our story. It was so personal and so beautiful to me, however for the first few months of engagement I would leave out how long we had been dating I was tired of the raised eye brows. I had grown tired of hearing “how long”  or “wow that was quick”. Your story is beautiful and you matter.

You WILL miss out on some things-  Let’s face it your going to miss out on a few things that typically come with being on your own maybe it’s an apartment to yourself or maybe it’s something else that is completely different be comfortable with your choice, but don’t dwell on what could have been and let a seed of bitterness drop in dwell on all the GLORIOUS things that come with marriage. I never knew my favorite place in the world would be on a sofa snuggled up with a cup of hot chocolate arguing about if IQ is a proper Words with Friends play.

Jesus should still be your most important relationship-  I will admit I’ve failed Him in this area every now and then. When you get married young balancing it all is HARD. I have found myself trying to find a balance between life, school, and married and I know what that’s like. Just remember never put Jesus on the back burner HOLD FAST and if it means you have to switch up your routine a little. A good man will understand.

 You WILL screw up, but you will survive- Marriage is the easiest and the hardest thing I’ve ever experienced. No matter how old you are or what stage of life your in you will never be perfect until you see the Lord never.  I never knew loving and serving someone could be so easy, but there are also HARD DAYS like really hard days. If it’s something you cant control ( I have panic attacks) and you feel bad that you aren’t “normal” remember that your husband picked you because he love YOU. If it’s letting sin get the upperhand or just a blow out argument ask for forgiveness, but this does not mean that you failed.. Remember than you are human and by no means does that give you an excuse to be complacent, but it does give you the peace to know that you can apologize to the ones that you love and leave it at the feet of Jesus.

It's worth it-  Every struggle is worth EVERY second. I promise!

Jesus love you and you are beautiful!!!