Marry Your Best Friend

Marry Your Best Friend

Let no one split apart what God has joined together.

The conversation about how my husband and I met and started dating came up one night around the dinner table, and our kids wanted to know the story. I thought back to many years earlier when I was a young twentysomething living in the basement of my now sister-in-law’s house. Her brother Kyle (my husband) would come home often, visiting his sister and inadvertently spending time with me as well. We became friends. We would spend time with his sister, sharing meals, playing games, watching TV, and over the course of time we got to know one another as friends—good friends.

When Kyle asked me out on our first official date, I knew how much I already liked and cared for him as a friend. I had watched him with his family, observed him interact with children, heard his passions, and knew his heart.

That night, after Kyle dropped me off, he sat on the front porch and wrote me a note. In it he detailed, among other things, that he knew he was going to marry me someday.

My daughter couldn’t believe it. “How could you know that after just one date?!” she asked.

“Because I’d already spent so much time with your mom, I already knew her. We were such good friends—and when she said yes to a date, I knew I was going to marry her,” my husband responded.

We went on to encourage our kids to not only marry, but date, someone you are friends with first. We told them that sometimes love and marriage are hard, but if you’re good friends, it will help you weather relational storms.

Jesus tells us that no one should split apart a man and a woman whom God has joined together—and one of the best ways we’ve found to do that is to never stop being best friends with one another.

— Kendra

— Today’s Act of Friendship —

Tell your spouse or a loved one why you’re grateful for their friendship.