Denise Speaks On How She Knew

Wedding Anniversary Date: February 23, 1985

How she knew her husband was the one for her:

“We were married seven years before we had kids, we did everything together and had a great time with each other. I really enjoyed him. But then it was a time when things were a little rough and I remember praying to the Lord and asking Him to show me Agape' love. At the time I saw real love and as mad as I wanted to be at him all I saw was love, and as the love was apparent, I realized this was the one for me.

Also, I remember telling my mother-in-law around the same time that I will see to it that I get the best years of my husband's life. She said to me, 'I don't know how you put up with him' and that was my answer. I didn't want him to get his life right with God and then give those years to someone else. That belonged to me and I wanted it. Well my mother-in-law starting crying in the car. She said that was the most beautiful thing she has ever heard, especially when the times were not that great. But, I really meant that. If he was going to go, I made it real difficult for someone else to have him because despite what we were going through, I continued to do all my wifely responsibilities---and I do mean all, even if I was mad with him. I knew then that he was the one. ”

What she loves about his mind: I love the way he loves me - when I'm in his arms there is nothing else that matters. I feel loved and safe. It's like he has this hold on me when he holds me and I just melt. What is so beautiful about this is that we are 25 years total together and I still feel that way. And he expresses himself openly a lot at those times.

What she loves about his body: I like his build, strong legs and arms and light brown eyes...the way he wears his hair with the beard connected to his side burns and a light goatee. As far as his hands are concerned - he's very skilled.

What she loves about his spirit: He is is really learning a lot now about the Lord and I realized that the Lord had been working on him for a long time. For example, before he was honoring the Lord with his life, he got into a financial situation and it really got to him...he was worrying a lot about it. One day we were talking about it, and out of his mouth comes this: “If I was to stand before God today, He would say that I didn't take advantage of the gift he gave me.” He was talking about me. He said all the problems in his life seemed to be the strong points in me, but he hasn't taken advantage of the very gift that was placed in his life. Well, my insides was roaring and I just know my spirit traveled to heaven and "high fived" someone up there, came back down and entered my body without my feet every moving. He says things like that a lot.

Denise's advice to single women about marriage:

"Get to love Jesus, first. Be submissive to God and respect your husband. Even if you are upset with you husband, don't stop doing what you would normally do, including being intimate. Also, there are a lot of books out there on marriage but one that really helped me and I referred to it on more than one occasion is Stormie Omaritan. “The Power Of a Praying Wife”, I recommend. I teach a Bible study and one day we were in Proverbs 3 or 4 and it talks about how a prostitute lures her mate and how powerful the lure is because of the planning and time she puts into it. But the Holy Spirit showed me that even though a prostitute can bring the strongest man down, submissiveness has an even more powerful force at bringing a man to his knees in a godly manner. When I'm submissive I get the pleasure of honoring God and my husband and most times the very thing I was willing to give up for him (like allowing him to have the final decision), he gives to me. This year (2009) my husband gave his life to Christ. Now I have been in Christ since before I got married. Our church has a watch night service every year and I really enjoy it and usually I have something to do at the service. But I decided to go to my husband's church instead for watch night service. So in return, he decided we would go to both services. His first and then mine. I felt really blessed about that and it tends to happen that way a lot. Point being, there is power in submission.”