I am turning 22 this year. It’s weird to think that I’ve been out of high school four years. Makes me wonder what I have truly accomplished for myself (and for others), and whether I am on the right track to becoming an adult, or if my laziness has defeated me and stunted my development into a Godly young adult. As I think about the past, I begin to also think about the future. If you read The Gray Morning you will know that one of my greatest desires is to love a woman, get married, and have a family. The thought of getting married does not frighten me, rather I view it as the final step into adulthood, to becoming the man that God wants me to be; the challenges and things that God wants for us should be accepted and pursued and fought for. Achieving the victory of being married will no doubt be the highlight of my life. Even though I am not frightened by the eventual reality of marriage, it is a stage of life that is unknown to me, and so in an attempt to be as Godly a husband and father as possible, I have taken to reading and listening to books and sermons about marriage and assuming the role (with confidence and strength) that I will have in that dynamic. As I devote my conscious thought to marriage, I have come to realize that though in our minds we separate friendship and marriage as two different levels or degrees of companionship, in fact they are more similar (almost identical) than we genuinely accept them to be. (more…)